Software management – the business perspective

A one-day workshop

Software comes in a variety of guises – application software, firmware, middleware, system software. Increasingly, however, it doesn’t necessarily present that way, especially as the boundaries between software, data and source code are becoming more and more blurred. And as software becomes more complex and more difficult to disentangle, so it becomes harder to manage and to value. But as it becomes more integral to every aspect of a business, so it is ever more important to keep on top of the technical, legal and commercial issues that arise, issues such as:

Lack of understanding of the software business case or its viability
Not realising the total cost of ownership
Not having the ability to measure the quality level of the software
Poor understanding the legal or compliance issues
Selection of the right technology to ensure future enhancements
Not knowing what are the intellectual property assets that should be protected and what are the associated risks
Ensuring that the user experience is competitive
Poor software security

To address these issues, organisations need a process for evaluating their current situation from all perspectives and for identifying the key actions they need to take to ensure holistic management of their software. This very practical programme will help set your organisation on the right path.

Objectives

Learning objectives

This programme is designed to give you a deeper understanding of:

The technical, legal and commercial risks associated with software development, procurement, use and commercial exploitation
The most appropriate processes and responsibilities for managing those risks

Audience

Who should attend?

The programme is intended for those managers across an organisation responsible for any aspect of the development, procurement, commercial exploitation and legal protection of software.

Format

This is an intensive one-day session. Ideally, it is delivered on a face-to-face basis, although if required it can be delivered virtually instead.

Special features
Meet the trainer

Special features

A variety of tools and techniques will be provided as part of the session, which can be tailored to your precise requirements.

Meet the trainer

Expert trainer

Donal is a software engineer by background and a specialist in the areas of innovation and intellectual property management. As a consultant, he helps organisations to recognise and appreciate the value of their intellectual capital, assets and property, and to ensure that they then manage these intangibles in an efficient and effective manner. His clients include multi-nationals, SMEs, legal and IP firms, financial services companies and universities. As a trainer, Donal has a passion for innovation and creativity and for making people aware of the nature and value of their intellectual property. And for getting the message across in an engaging way, using online bite-sized videos and quizzes as well as virtual and classroom-based sessions.

Rising from software engineer at Atari and Philips to Vice President of R&D and a Director of Intellectual Property at Nokia, Donal spent 21 years with the company, gaining wide and varied experience in the wireless telecoms industry, including periods in The Netherlands, the USA, Finland and Hong Kong, as well as the UK. He left Nokia in 2009 to found his own very successful IP consultancy. In the top 300 of the world’s IP strategists (the IAM 300) since 2013, Donal is also a Visiting Researcher at Imperial College Business School (London), where he teaches on intellectual property management. He also coaches and mentors a number of start-up companies on innovation and entrepreneurship. His first book was Inside the Patent Factory (Wiley, 2008) and his second Harvesting External Innovation (Gower, 2011). Donal has also written around 150 papers on various aspects of innovation and IP which have been published in a range of magazines, websites and blogs around the world. Of particular relevant to this workshop, he was also involved in the design of a technique that helps provide an holistic approach to software management.

Note: this is an indicative agenda, to be used as a starting point for a conversation between client and consultant, depending on the organisation’s specific situation and requirements.

1 Software business model

What is the software business model?
What options exist?
Has the software business model been thoroughly reviewed to ensure its viability? This means fully understanding the market opportunity, the business environment and customer and end-user expectations.

2 Technology

What are the technologies?
How has the technology selection been validated considering the competitiveness, structure, and potential for future innovation?

3 UI and UX

What is the UI and UX? How to best articulate this?
Has the user interface and user experience been studied from both a subjective and objective view to give insight into customer behaviour?

4 Legal framework / commercial aspects

Has the necessary legal framework or commercial aspects that may impact upon use or operation of the software been understood and risks identified and mitigated?

5 Software development

What is the software development process?
Are both the business management and development team’s processes resilient in order to improve the company’s capability and the maturity of the software?

6 Software quality

What is quality?
What are the metrics around software quality? What is the maturity level, based around a qualitative and quantitative assessment?

7 Intellectual property associated

What IP should be considered when it comes to software?
Does the company understand both the intellectual property risks and potential opportunities associated with this software?

8 Security

What does software security mean in this context?
How is it being addressed?

9 An holistic approach

Review of roles and responsibilities to ensure appropriate management and protection

Any questions? Please just give us a call on 01582 463463 – we’re here to help!