bitHeads Whitepaper
Responding to Customer-Specific Requirements
For most growing software companies, the scenario is all too familiar:
after weeks of waiting for it "any day now," that next big customer
deal finally closes. That's the good news. The bad news is that, in
order to close the deal, your company committed to the development
of some product extensions, custom applications, customer-branded
user interface or other new work. The customer wants it delivered
"yesterday" and you're under pressure from your board to recognize
the revenue in the current quarter. You have to respond quickly but you
don't have the in-house resources unless you cannibalize your core
R&D team.
Fortunately, a new approach has been successfully used by 3Com, Brix
Networks, Bridgewater Systems and others to solve this management
dilemma. This paper explores the issue of managing fluctuating
demand for customer-specific development and introduces the
bitHeads ProductStream™ partnership model.
