Determine what market segments you’re targeting with your next release or with a series of planned releases. Think about the appropriate balance of time to market, value, functionality, and quality characteristics that will be important for each market segment.

Complete Table 5-3 to list several release criteria for your product. Make sure they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and trackable. Determine what you can measure to see whether you’re approaching satisfaction of each criterion. For those you can quantify, state the target value that would indicate the criterion has been satisfied.

Complete Table 5-4 to list the project stakeholders who will make the product-release decision. There might be multiple release decisions, such as releasing a build to the quality assurance group, to beta test sites, to manufacturing, or to general availability. Describe the decision-making process each group will use.