With all the hype in the software world about methodologies and techniques, it is tempting to be hip and jump on what’s hot. But does that always make sense for the product and the organization? Are there any decision criteria? Are there more fundamental trends and developments beyond the latest fad? How can you as a software product manager find your way in the jungle?

Hans-Bernd Kittlaus is the chairman of ISPMA e.V. He is also the owner and general
manager of InnoTivum Consulting (www.innotivum.com) which he founded in 2001. Before, he was Director of SIZ GmbH (Computing Center of the German Savings Banks Organization, Germany) and Head of Software Product Management and Development units of IBM. His main focus area is software product management. Hans-Bernd has been working as a trainer, coach and consultant for both corporate IT organizations and companies in a number of industries. He has trained hundreds of product managers in more than 70 SPM trainings including all five ISPMA-based training modules. He is a frequent presenter at conferences and has published numerous books and articles, his latest being “Software Product Management: The ISPMA-Compliant Study Guide and Handbook” (with Samuel Fricker, Springer 2017). He is Diplom-Informatiker (corresponds to M.S. in Computer Science) and certified as ISPMA Certified Software Product Manager, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), and PRINCE2 Practitioner. He is the head of the SPM group in ASQF (Arbeitskreis für Software-Qualität und Fortbildung e. V., Germany), a member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery, USA) and GI (Gesellschaft für Informatik, Germany).