The first ever ISPMA Software Product Management training in Denmark was completed yesterday in Copenhagen.

The Danish IT Industry Association (ITB)  and TBK Consult was the organizer of this successful training for Software Product Managers in Denmark based on a syllabus approved by the International Software Product Management Association (ISPMA), an international group of independent software experts.

SPM training at the IT University of Copenhagen

The ISPMA training was announced to the Danish ISV community in December 2011 and the 15 seats were sold out within four days.

A software product manager is responsible for managing a product throughout the product life cycle with the objective of achieving sustainable economic success. He/she owns the business case of a product across its different versions, variants and associated services.

Acting as a “mini CEO” he/she represents an enterprise or business unit in strategy formulation and its operational realization. SPM includes work with requirements, release definitions, product release lifecycles, the creation and interpretation of product strategies, balancing long-term technology push with shorter-term market-pull, and assuring a winning business case by selecting the right requirement for realization and an appropriate price. The software product manager needs to coordinate all units within the company that are relevant for the success of the product.

The training was delivered as a 3-day-course and covered the full spectrum of SPM responsibilities and activities.

Hans-Bernd Kittlaus

The training instructor was Hans-Bernd Kittlaus, an internationally renowned expert on SPM. He has been working as trainer and consultant for software organizations such as Lycos, Deutsche Telekom and SimCorp. Before this he was head of SPM and development units at IBM. He is a board member of ISPMA, and has published numerous articles and books, e.g. “Software Product Management and Pricing” (Springer, 2009).

The next SPM training will take place in Copenhagen, March 26-28, 2012. ISPMA Certification examination will be offered on March 28, 2012 immediately after adjourning the training session.