A colleague, Ray Wang, has loads of fascinating statistics in his recent data overview, "The State Of Enterprise Software Adoption: 2007 To 2008." A staggering number of companies have developed and maintain custom applications.

Ray's piece is written for the market researcher, but like all good research, it has much broader implications. Perhaps you won't be surprised when I say, "Including product managers!"

The statistic says that a lot of demand exists that technology vendors are not meeting. Custom development is a last resort--and I should know, since I've done it myself.

Twice in my career, I've pushed to create custom requirements management (RM) applications. In the last case, I wrote it myself in PHP and MySQL. (Never fear, it's a laughably rudimentary application, functionality-wise, so the friend and colleague who inherited it wasn't left with an unmaintainable mess.)

Here's another facet of Forrester transparency: we let our clients vote on the research they'd like to see.

My planned research will appear soon in the official list. Once they appear, I'm very interested in getting a thumbs up or thumbs down on these topics from product managers (and those who love them). If you don't see your top challenge--collecting requirements, building product plans, helping craft product marketing, etc.--tell us!

I'll add a notice here once my planned research list goes live. Please take a look and provide feedback.

In the research business, it's important to have data. However, to be credible, you also need transparency.

If you're a Forrester client, you have access to the data we collect for our research. Obviously, that helps you maintain confidence in the advice we give. However, transparency is as much about community as it is about confidence.

In academia, you'll often hear the expression research community. That phrase describes an active discussion among those involved about (1) what needs to be studied, (2) how these topics should be studied, and (3) the conclusions individual researchers reach. Subjects, methodology, results--whether you're a physicist or an historian, a lot of people always have a lot to talk about.

Forrester already invites you, Dear Reader, to tell us what questions you'd like to see us answer. You can see the current list of planned research here. My research topics will appear on that page soon; meanwhile, you can always talk to me directly through this blog.

Every research project must start with a precisely-worded hypothesis. During an earlier stint in academia, I certainly saw attempts at hypothesis-free research. Not surprisingly, it went nowhere. (Never underestimate the power of academics to turn the interesting into the tedious.)

Therefore, it’s not enough to say, “We here at Forrester are looking into how to help product management.” You have to say why it’s worth helping them, and what the problems they face really are. Based on the impressionistic experience of being a product manager, here’s my thesis, step by step.

1. TI is immature
The technology industry may not be in its infancy, but at best, it’s in its adolescence. The shift from information technology (IT) to business technology (BT) is the industry’s growing pains. (For more details, click here.) Companies are under increasing pressure to build technology that’s immediately useful for specific users and tasks.