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When product lifecycle governance is used in conjunction with an agile framework, it provides a framework for product development and lifecycle management that is flexible and responsive to changing customer needs, regulatory requirements and market conditions. 

Product lifecycle governance refers to the framework a company uses to manage its products' development, launch, lifecycle monitoring and retirement. It is essential for product managers because it helps ensure that products are developed and marketed consistently, which can lead to better outcomes for the company, its customers and the planet.

Additionally, I've found that the governance process can help to minimize the risk of product development and launch - with tools like launch-ready checklists. It can help ensure that the company maximizes the return on investment for its products.

Conversely, the Agile framework is a methodology for managing and completing projects flexibly and collaboratively. An agile framework is an excellent set of principles and practices for software development that emphasize iterative, adaptive planning, delivery, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. Scrum, Kanban, and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) are popular Agile frameworks.

The benefits of using both include:

1. Faster time-to-market: Agile allows teams to deliver working software quickly, which can be beneficial for businesses that need to respond rapidly to changes in the market.
2. Improved collaboration and alignment: Agile promotes collaboration and communication between team members, which can lead to better decision-making and faster problem resolution.  Product governance helps the collaboration between product, sales and compliance teams and embeds guardrails for risk management.
3. Increased flexibility and adaptability: Agile allows teams to quickly adapt to changes in requirements or market conditions, which can be especially beneficial for businesses that operate in rapidly changing markets.  The monitoring phase in a product governance framework and conducting strategic product reviews is great way to course-correct and manage lifecycle risk.
4. Better alignment of product development with business goals: Product lifecycle governance provides a framework for aligning product development with overall business goals, leading to better decision-making and more effective use of resources. The design phase and using tools like Target Market Statements support validation of customer, business and reputation goals.
5. Increased transparency and accountability: Product lifecycle governance can increase transparency and accountability, by assigning an owner to each product lifecycle and conducting product-level annual reviews and sustainability statements. 
6. Reduce the cost of non-compliance with product regulatory regimes: the costs costs can include fines, legal fees, lost sales, and damage to a company's reputation. In some cases, the cost can reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
7. Communicate your product sustainability efforts transparently to your customers and stakeholders. A product governance framework ensures you conduct a lifecycle assessment of your product to identify its environmental impacts and areas for improvement.  

How to add product governance to an agile team in 6 steps

To add product governance to an agile product team, consider the following steps:

1. Define product governance principles: Establish a clear definition of what product governance means for your team, including the phases, roles, risk management, and key stakeholders.
2. Involve stakeholders: Ensure key stakeholders, including business owners, stakeholders from risk and compliance, and senior leaders, are involved in the product governance process.
3. Create a product governance schedule: Develop a product annual schedule that includes governance-related items such as lifecycle reviews, risk assessments, compliance checks, and trigger threshold action status.
4. Integrate governance into the product development cycle: Integrate governance-related activities into the regular product development cycle, including sprint planning, retrospectives, and demos.  At the design stage include Target market statements and consistently use Launch-ready checklists that cover regulatory obligations.
5. Establish consistent product monitoring and reviews: Establish clear schedule of product monitoring covering important areas like customer complaints and trigger thresholds and share governance reports between the product team, stakeholders, and governance bodies to ensure that everyone is informed and engaged.
6. Regularly review and update: Regularly review and update the product governance process to ensure it is aligned with the needs of the business and the product team.

So in summary, using product lifecycle governance and agile framework together can help to ensure that product development efforts are aligned with overall business goals and that resources are being used effectively while allowing teams to be more flexible and responsive to changing customer needs, regulatory requirements and market conditions.

You can learn more about what is a product governance framework  here.

 About Skyjed

‍Skyjed is product lifecycle and governance platform. Skyjed’s Ai-powered end-to-end product platform bring together every data point across the entire product portfolio into a single source of product truth.  Skyjed was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in London and offices in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. For more information visit Skyjed