Productization of customer specific software in an IT company
Wali, Anirudh (2018)
Jyväskylän ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018060713157
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018060713157
Tiivistelmä
Recent studies and surveys carried out in the area of productization have revealed a lack of knowledge of the productization process within software companies as the greatest obstacle in the path of transformation from producing customer-specific solutions to self- driven product-based business models. Software companies have recognized the advantages of developing product-based solutions that are reusable, scalable and market driven, but due to the lack of studies undertaken in the area and to the generic nature of the transformation process, they do not want to take the risks of a productization process.
A software product-management reference framework was established as the main theoretical framework, and the key aspects of productization, such as its various levels, challenges and benefits as well as the definition of a software product were reviewed with the help of the existing literature. This was done in order to find the key success factors and their applications that could be utilized in a product transformation process. Due to the subjective nature of the study, the qualitative research approach was applied. In order to acquire in-depth information, the case study method was chosen, which comprised of an ongoing productization situation analysis of the case company and two semi-structured interviews conducted within the company’s R&D unit.
The findings revealed that the maturity of four functions of the SPM framework (portfolio management, product road mapping, release management and requirements management) were the key success factors of the productization process in the case company. In addition, various improvements were identified and outlined in order to improve the maturity of the four functions. This was hoped to lead to higher levels of productization. The study also recommended similar future investigations into the productization processes of software companies of various sizes analyzed together in search of generic and widely applicable results.
A software product-management reference framework was established as the main theoretical framework, and the key aspects of productization, such as its various levels, challenges and benefits as well as the definition of a software product were reviewed with the help of the existing literature. This was done in order to find the key success factors and their applications that could be utilized in a product transformation process. Due to the subjective nature of the study, the qualitative research approach was applied. In order to acquire in-depth information, the case study method was chosen, which comprised of an ongoing productization situation analysis of the case company and two semi-structured interviews conducted within the company’s R&D unit.
The findings revealed that the maturity of four functions of the SPM framework (portfolio management, product road mapping, release management and requirements management) were the key success factors of the productization process in the case company. In addition, various improvements were identified and outlined in order to improve the maturity of the four functions. This was hoped to lead to higher levels of productization. The study also recommended similar future investigations into the productization processes of software companies of various sizes analyzed together in search of generic and widely applicable results.