Product Management in IT

We've been seeing an interesting trend - IT departments hiring product managers and setting up a formal product management function and process. For example, Intel IT licensed our product manager's toolkit and product roadmap toolkit for their IT staff and have set up a centralized product management resources portal for worldwide use. They also had us do some training and consulting work.

It's not surprising to see this happen. IT departments have a wide range of projects with requirements that change often and need to be defined up-front. Using MRDs/PRDs and roadmaps to prioritize, get commitments and communicate plans is a proven best practice, and IT is leveraging the resources and knowledge that has been developed over the years. There is an interesting article about it here if you want to read more about it.