Market analysis for product software
Market analysis for product software consists of a number of techniques that allow an organization to collect and disseminate information from their external environment of software products for use in determining their market strategy and actions. For example, market analysis helps to determine critical strategies for new software products such as time-to-market length, creating product differentiation, creating and preserving supplier credibility, developing effective distribution channels, forming relationships with large customers, and managing market efforts (Igel & Islam, 2001).
This topic has its roots in marketing discipline. Many types of market research techniques are used to gather this …show more content…

Therefore, a managerial decision must be made on the resources and objectives for new product development. Risk analysis techniques can be used to manage this trade-off decision (Carmel, 1995). With the heavy competition in most software product markets, gaining early market acceptance is essential to achieving firm success (Trondsen, 1996). This is not easy to do. Product complexity and rapid changes in requirements (see also Requirements management processes) increase the difficulty of rushing software products to market (Ramesh et al, 2002). There are some ways to relieve this tension of time-to-market. Following market rhythms with versioning can reduce this pressure by allowing incremental innovation (Carmel, 1995). Versioning also gives flexibility to quality factors since problems can be repaired in the next release (Ramaesh et al, 2002). In the end, quality level perceived by customers is can be influence by their expectations (Kekre et al, 1995). The best way for a software company to remain competitive, is by finding ways to include quality assurance activities during software development and at the same time find ways to reduce the time-to-market (Carmel, 1995). This is one of the key management decisions during product development facing software companies.
Customers can be divided into two groups, consumers (an individual) and corporate buyers. Consumers generally buy