I was on leave for a week and when I got back I found a new flip chart was on the wall.

Critical Success Factors when we release:

• Functionality – Does it do the job?
• Usability – Does it do it well?
• Performance – Does it do it fast?
• Evolution – Does it build smoothly on what is already there?
• Delivery – Is it ready on time?
• Comms / Training – Have we told people about it?

Simon – the lead product manager and change agent – had used the weekly team meeting while I was away to reiterate to the team his critical success factors for a software product release. The flip chart was the by-product of that conversation.

I quite like the list. In a sense it has nothing new or surprising but there is something interesting. Notice the way the criteria stretch from what the system does through to the softer “comms” and an activity that is far distant from the development team, i.e. “training”. That spread reflects the responsbilities that Simon and I share … from project delivery through to rollout. Ultimately we are not done until we’ve built great software and people are using it successfully.