The "Phase Out Phase"

This post is the result of a discussion I had with a Sales Executive of a software company. We were talking about the process for the software product's "Phased Out" version replacement by the latest release of that product. Many a times we think about SDLC as four phases (or sometime five phases), but we often miss out on the last phase that will help us retain customers. It is relatively easier to make a customer but really difficult to maintain them (renew licenses etc). This is delicate process where we want create the need for the new release. I am not referring to an update or a defect fix or the next minor release. I am referring to the next mass release the company is/will plan.

There are different scenarios i.e. do we want to update the existing one or do we want to replace the existing one. You may want to replace the product due to different reasons i.e. current release is not up to the technological standards for delivering a customer focused "latest" feature set, the current underlying technology for the product is not compatible with the new OS or simply because we want to move to Dot Net since our competitors are using the .Net marketing "buzzz" words!

The strategy can also be to capture bigger and wider markets (or market share). In that case we may have to create the demand first and this may very well be through the existing customer feed back or "demand" for new features. This may also be due to a shift in the market place created by the competitors. In either case the process and convincing customers can begin with business strategy alignment with the market place as well as the technical goals alignment with the business goals. The rest is dependent on the the strategic vision.