4CC: A Framework for Managing Software Product Development

Abstract

Managing software product development is challenging, especially for small companies in which a balance has to be struck between development flexibility and management control while working under tight schedule and resource constraints. While there exists several approaches to software process improvement, such as the CMM and SPICE reference frameworks, these models focus on the software process for customer projects in large organizations. Small product-oriented companies require a more holistic and practical view to software engineering management that combines business and development considerations and has a clear product focus. This article presents a general framework for managing software product development in small organizations. The framework combines business and process management through four cycles of control: (1) strategic release management provides the interface between business management and product development; (2) release project management handles the development of individual product versions; (3) iteration management deals with the incremental development of product functionality within release projects, and, (4) mini-milestones are used for daily or weekly task scheduling and monitoring to get an indication of system status during development. The framework can be used both to assess the current state of development in the organization, as well as a blueprint for improving or reengineering product development management.