Winter, 2000

How does the I.T. professional manage the alignment between product development and the strategic plan of the software product? Here the word "alignment" is a catch all term for integration between the software product and its early adopters. Achieving alignment should be the first and most important goal of your software development process.

Here are two tips:

First: make sure that the beta sites test the objectives as defined by the Product Requirement Document (PRD) and the beta team leaders are represented by Product Development, QA, Technical Support, Product Manger, Marketing, Sales, and Investor Relations.

Second: make sure that the beta process clearly verifies for senior management, customers, shareholders, the technical press, the investment community and all other stakeholders, that the software product delivers the anticipated results.

Despite the hurry explicit in developing software, a carefully planned beta cycle enables the I.T. professional to align the software with market expectations.

Resources:

In order to determine the resources that one should allocate for the beta cycle, one needs to keep in mind some fundamentals.

Merely throwing people at projects without well thought out, clearly defined structures immediately puts the end results outside one's control. A marvelous solution to this dilemma is training internal staff in the ßetaWatch Process Cycle™.

Our basic premise is easy–give the tools to the beta team leaders. There are good reasons for doing this–motivation and accountability. The outcome–acquisition and utilization of a set of proven beta-testing processes.

To achieve success, your staff will manage the beta process in an integrated form. This task requires a considerable amount of communication.

In our sessions we teach your staff how to write and follow your beta phases and milestones in a comprehensive manner comparable to the Product Life Cycle. This includes all workflow processes, documentation procedures and tracking the software fixes to completion. We give you the communication skills to process the knowledge and information gained from the beta test sites into meaningful actions. We demonstrate how to get commitment and results from the beta test sites. Most importantly, we show you how to prepare early adopters to speak to the press.

The Payback: