Product Release Planning: Methods, Tools and Applications

Business success hinges on successfully creating products with the right features. You must correctly analyze the needs of the customer and match these needs with your resources to not only produce a product and but also deliver it in a timely manner. An in-depth understanding of systematic release planning can put you on this path. Authored by renowned expert Günther Ruhe, Product Release Planning: Methods, Tools and Applications presents methods and tools to apply sound planning to product development and product management.
The book covers the different aspects of supporting product release decisions ranging from foundations to methods, tools, and applications. Equal parts art and science, the actual decision-making is described as a process of combining rigorous methods with the intuition and experience of human experts. Ruhe provides a guided tour through the methodology and use of release planning, starting with technology and market needs and proceeding to product planning and finally to development projects. He studies three fundamental classes of problems: prioritization of features, product release planning on a strategic level (roadmapping), and release planning on an operational level (staffing).
Presenting and discussing tool support for all the methods covered, the author supplies case studies that underpin the methodologies with practical examples. He also supplies trial accounts (read only) for the two most important decision tools for prioritization and product release planning. The author freely admits that the techniques presented are not supposed to be the ultimate truth, but a direction to go to support human decision-making, to better understand the rational of the decisions made, and to grow in the capability of mastering the whole planning process.
About the Author: Günther Ruhe holds an Industrial Research Chair in Software Engineering at University of Calgary. His main results and publications are in software engineering decision support, product release planning, project management, as well as measurement, simulation, optimization and empirical research for software-based systems. From 1996 until 2001 he was deputy director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He has comprehensive experience in industry collaboration projects and is the Founder and CEO of Expert Decisions Inc. Dr. Ruhe is a member of the ACM, the IEEE Computer Society and the German Computer Society GI.

FoundationsOverview and IntroductionWhat is Release Planning and Why Do We Care? Misconceptions about Release PlanningHow the Book is StructuredSome Assumptions to ShareWho Should Read This Book? Expected BenefitsDecisions and How to Make Them IntroductionThree Product Release Decision Scenarios Classification of DecisionsDecision-making versus Decision SupportThe Decision-Making ProcessEvolutionary Problem SolvingAn Integrated Approach to Decision-MakingFeatures and Their PrioritizationIntroductionFeaturesFeature ElicitationCriteria for Feature PrioritizationSelection of StakeholdersPrioritization by Comparison: The Analytic Hierarchy Process AHPPrioritization by ScoringPrioritization Method Multi-ScoreVoice-Of-The-Stakeholder AnalysisMETHODSPlanning for Product Releases: An OverviewIntroductionThe Planning OnionRelease Planning in a NutshellRigorous Release Planning MethodsRelease Planning in Practice: The Status QuoModeling for Product Release PlanningIntroductionDecision Variables and Horizon of PlanningDependencies Between FeaturesPre-AssignmentsEffort ConstraintsCost ConstraintsResource ConstraintsRisk ConstraintsPlanning ObjectivesGeneration of Qualified Alternative Solutions How all the Modeling Components Come Together EVOLVE II: A Systematic Method for Planning Product Releases IntroductionEvolutionary Problem Solving for Product Release PlanningEVOLVE II: Description of the ProcessComparison with Other MethodsApplicabilityRe-Planning of Product ReleasesIntroductionProblem FormulationRe-planning Method H2W*H2W* Process DescriptionIllustrative Case StudyStaffing for Product ReleasesIntroductionBackground and Related WorkStaffing for Maximum Total Release ValueStaffing for Minimum Project DurationStaffing for Maximum Competence MatchIndustrial Case StudyAdvanced TopicsIntroduction Effort Estimation for Release PlanningDecision Support by Explanation of ResultsRelease Planning in Consideration of Design ConstraintsThe Impact of Uncertainty in Operational Release PlanningTOOLSTool SupportIntroductionSupport For Prioritization: The Tool VeryBestChoicelightProduct Release Planning: The ReleasePlannerTM ToolStaffing: The Tool RASORPAPPLICATIONSCase Study: Product RoadmappingIntroductionPreparation for PlanningPrioritization of Features by Stakeholders Planning without Tool SupportGeneration of Optimized Release Plan AlternativesRe-running the ProcessCase Study: Staffing for Product ReleasesIntroductionBaselineThe Impact of Improved ProductivityThe Impact of Predicted and Unpredicted Absence of DevelopersThe Impact of Unpredicted Change of Effort EstimatesImpact of Adding a New Feature During Release Development Decision Support for HiringDiscussionCase Study: Adaptable Project Management Introduction An Adaptable Project Management ApproachCase StudyDiscussion of ResultsApplication ScenariosIntroductionRoadmapping for Multiple ProductsRelease Planning with Consideration of Quality DemandsAgile Project Management Following ScrumPlanning for Competitiveness of ProductsProject Portfolio PlanningHow To Get It StartedIntroductionStep 1: Characterize and UnderstandStep 2: Define the Problem and Its StakeholdersStep 3: Define the ProcessStep 4: Execute the ProcessStep 5: Analyze the Process and Its PerformanceStep 6: Package Experience and ResultsCost-Benefit AnalysisFinal RemarksREFERENCESINDEX