Product management assessment-a new approach to optimize the early phases

For more than ten years Siemens Corporate Technology has applied the Capability Maturity Model (CMM®) and has performed more than 250 CMM-assessments. Over the years, improvement efforts based on the assessment results successfully proved their benefits. But, since these improvements focused solely on development processes it became apparent that problems that arise in earlier phases could not be disregarded. Thus, it was obvious that an additional assessment for product management processes is a necessity that helps understand and manage the entire process of the product life cycle. Combined with best practice in product management these experiences result in a reference model that underlies the assessment structure for product management. The assessment consists of a questionnaire, evaluation tools and templates for documenting and presenting the results. The experiences in practice show their first benefits for the customers.