It is undoubtedly apparent that the agile approaches to software product development is on the rise and is also finding its ways to other industries. On many of my training sessions on the traditional and agile project management and in certification preparation classes, one question always comes up on the scope of career growth for project management as a profession with the increased focus on agile principles. It seems like most of the Scrum focus on product owner and scrum master without calling for a project manager role appears to have stirred up a concern on product management. Worse yet, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) tries to mimic Kerstein (2018) thoughts of moving from project to product thinking without truly understanding the author's emphasis on elevating project level thinking to product level thinking instead of telling project management principles are no longer relevant. So, is product management going to kill project management? What will become the role of a project manager in an agile setting?
If we review the basic
definition of the project, the experts in the field agree that the project is a temporary endeavor to
create a unique product, service, or result. The PMBOK guide (2017) further
notes that although projects may be temporary, their deliverables may exist
beyond the life of the product.
Inherent in this definition lies an inexorable relationship between
these two disciplines. The premise of the strategy is long-term and if the product
has a long-term focus, so should the project management focus also be in
sustaining the product over a long-time horizon.
Nevertheless, this distinction of
project management doesn’t come through because the project managers fail to
view themselves as the change agent responsible for a set of processes, tools,
and techniques indispensable to bring a product, service or result to the
market. Therefore, a product cannot be delivered without a strategic focus on
execution that only the discipline of the project management can provide
through the phases of initiation, planning, execution,
control, and closure. Even strategic project managers are required to have
the project management skills, says Mike Schultz (2018), president of Rain
Group.
Does that mean product
management is a subset of project management? Definitely not! As noted, product
management has a longer time horizon compared to project management. So,
everything a project manager must do gets magnified in product management as
they need to truly understand the complexities of the behavioral changes in the
consumers using the product as well as the continuous
and competitive forces changing the market demands. It is no wonder therefore
even the product management toolkit (Gorchels, 2012) identifies project
management competencies as a core foundational skill of product manager (p. 9).
 Image Credit: Created by Author for
illustration |
As a result, there is a healthy symbiotic relationship between
product management and project management as they don’t compete but complement each other. |
For one to consider the
relationship between product management and project management, let us look at their life cycle. As a new product idea
or significant feature for an existing product is conceived, the product
management may focus on generating the ideas, evaluating the alternatives,
assessing the viability, evaluating the
technical, operational and environmental feasibility, and creating a business
case at the beginning (The Standard for Program Management, 2013).
Hence, the product manager will have to think strategically about scouting the external and internal
environments by applying Porter's 5-force model. This 5-force model involves
the availability of substitute products, bargaining power of the buyers (price
consciousness of (buyers), bargaining
power of suppliers (understanding the vendor environment supplying goods),
rivalry among the established firms (fierceness of the competition), and the
threat of new entrants (innovative opportunities that can stifle the
market).
Finally, the business case from
product management becomes the starting point establishing the authority,
intent, and philosophy behind the business need, for the portfolio governance
to issue a program mandate following a program manager assignment (The Standard
for Program Management, 2013). While some projects are often beginning from a
statement of work (SOW) with contractual
requirements of using the product’s inherent capabilities to customize
or support the customer’s needs, more
substantial projects and vital
programs may be started from the program mandate.
These programs, made up of many
other interdependent projects and
operations, deliver incremental and unified benefits by creating the
entire architecture enabled by the technological platform and the required
infrastructure to sustain and support the product, service, or result that these larger
projects and programs create. Therefore, the lifeblood of product management is
the project and program management.
It is, therefore, evident that the
product management defines what we should be doing and where we should be going
while the project management tells when and how we could be getting there. The
product roadmap becomes the essential
milestone that the project manager
should schedule to reach. As various milestones are achieved in the product roadmap, benefits may have to be realized
and validated before continuing to invest in the next phase of the product
journey initiating the project charter for the next milestone.
 Phoenix Image Credit: Downloaded from Pixabay. |
Consequently, the field of project management is like the Phoenix bird that ceases to exist as soon as that milestone in the product roadmap required by product management has been served. However, as the product management continues its journey through its lifecycle of development, growth, maturity, and retirement, there will be additional needs that will come up, and the Phoenix bird revives itself again. The Phoenix bird never dies! |
Therefore, excellent product managers will know that they need strategic
project managers as their brainstorming partners and similarly, successful project managers will have more
strategic thinking beyond the organizational context to support the product
managers.
Each profession, as a result, has
a symbiotic relationship. The more project managers learn about product
management philosophies, and the more product managers get grounded on
essential project management foundations, the more they both support each other
in the success of the performing organization through innovative products and
excellent customer service.
References
A guide to the project management body of knowledge (2017). 6th Edition. Newtown Square, PA. : Project Management Institute.
Gorchels, L. (2012). The Product
Manager’s toolkit. 4th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Kerstein, M. (2018). Project to Product. Portland, OR: IT Revolution.
Schults, M. (2018, February 7). 4
Skills your technical sales experts need to have. Retrieved February 26, 2018,
from https://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog
The Standard for Program
Management (2013). 3rd Edition; Newtown Square, PA.: Project Management
Institute.
