An empirical research on the relationships between Software Product Management and Software Project Management

This paper is a dedicated research on the way the fields of Software Product Management and Software Project Management collaborate with each other, within software product companies. It analyzes the dependencies between software product and software project and the relationships between product and project managers. The software product is defined based on the market success, customer satisfaction and meeting the internal business goals. Software projects are defined based on the delivery time, the quality and the cost incurred from the project development. Product and project managers are characterized upon their role specific qualifications as well as their positioning within the organizational structure of a software product vendor. The research is theory oriented. It concludes with some theory propositions as the result of both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis. The theory propositions describe the relationships between Software Product Management and Software Project Management. The findings show that project’s quality is the most influential factor for the product’s market success as well as for the customer satisfaction. Product managers are proved to be more business oriented, focusing on Strategic and Tactical decision-making. Project managers need more technical skills and they are more involved with Operational and Tactical decisions. The purpose of the research is to provide the software product companies with a benchmarking information of the current status of the market in Software Product Management and Software Project Management aspects. The results answer current business issues such as the positioning of the roles of a product manager and a project manager within the company as well as their dependencies in the organizational structure, as they are used in the contemporary market.