How do you make progress on your roadmap in the face of firefighting?

This is an ongoing question from the moment that you have a product and even a prospective customer. Real-time requirements for assistance, demos, features and bugfixing are common diversions for many engineering groups. So how do you handle this natural competition for resources?

The first thing you need is a roadmap. Without clear plans and goals you won't even know what you are not doing. Time can slip by easily in fire-fighting mode and along with it market opportunities.

The next thing you need is a budget. You need to legitimize the time spent on diversions from the roadmap. Do not expect your developers to handle a full development load along with a second development load for bugfixing. Another key to successfully managing resource competition is to firewall resources for new development (see Christensen's 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma).

The next thing you need is some process. Decent schedules which represent all of the activities engineering is responsible for is a must. If new opportunities arise, do not assume the team can just lump more work on. I like schedules to be aggressive but accomplishable -- where the key word is accomplishable. Put a process in place that allows for change. If a new feature is needed, will you fund it with new resources, re-target resources working on some of projects, etc. ? Outside influence can begin to look like a fire-fight. Changing directions too often will be inefficient and depress developers.

Finally you need leadership. Understand your team's capacity. Understand your company's financial and competitive situation. Aggressive but accomplishable.

More later ...