Shifting from projects to products
In the evolution of digital knowledge work, there’s a pivotal shift from project-based to product-centric models, transforming how organizations deliver value and respond to market demands. Mik Kersten’s book Project to Product drew significant attention to this change, offering a structured framework and practical guidance that solidified the concept.1 Building upon discussions within the Agile and DevOps communities, Kersten’s work reinforced the importance of product-centric thinking, which Agile methodologies and the DevOps movement had already laid out.
Traditionally, the project-centric paradigm, often associated with the Waterfall development model, emphasized discrete, temporary efforts with a specific scope, budget, and timeline. However, this model proved to be inefficient, unnecessarily delaying projects and allowing coding errors and defects to accumulate, making them increasingly difficult to resolve. Moreover...
