May 26, 2023

One Big Thing: What the Shift from Projects to Products is Really All About

At the end of my last post, One Big Thing: The Biggest Hurdle for Project Managers to Become Product Managers, I touched on the different characteristics of projects and products, including the different ways these types of investments are managed. In this post, I’ll focus on the investment implications. The topic is an important one: The change in the way organizations invest is actually the single most profound impact of the business’ transformation from projects to products.

Historically, organizations invested in technology through projects. Often, these were large “capital” projects that involved acquiring and installing hard assets, such as mainframes, servers, networks, and so on. These projects also usually required a large up-front expenditure that would be depreciated over the investment’s useful life and provide a much smaller operational annuity once things were put in place. This operating annuity would often start once the project was over and the responsibility for operations was given to the business, or possibly to a central IT function. Either way, the spending pattern was the same: A bunch of money went out the door in exchange for a bunch of stuff and the people, usually contractors, to put it in; then a much smaller amount of money would be needed to keep it going once it’s in.

Nowadays, however, technology investments in most organizations are dominated by software not hardware—and the spending pattern for software is usually very different, especially if we’re talking about mobile apps or other more modern internet-based applications. Software today usually starts out small, maybe as a skunkworks project in the back room of the company or with a couple of people cranking out code during a hackathon. Once people believe it delivers value, the software grows over time. As a result, the costs of software typically start out smaller and grow over time as well. Typically, the more successful the software, the more people that will be needed to keep it going.

So the shift from projects to products is really about changing the primary vehicle for technology investment within the organization. Sure, there will still be times when you need a good old-fashioned project, a temporary cost center to accomplish a specific goal by a specific date. However, more often than not these days, you’re actually investing in an app that you want to deliver value for as long as possible. There is no end date. Another way to phrase it: The projects-to-products shift is about operationalizing technology—taking what was once a project-based model and making it a constant presence in our everyday business operations.

We already see this happening in many organizations, whether people realize it or not. One recent study found almost three-quarters of technology spending is at least partially funded by groups outside of IT. This change in spending patterns is basically the natural end result of the reality that “there’s no such thing as a significant business initiative that doesn’t involve technology.” Our organizations need to be prepared to address this shift head-on and take advantage of the positive potential it provides. I’ll address the opportunities that await organizations that emphasize a product management approach in my next post.

Tag(s): Product Management , ValueOps , Rally , Clarity

Brian Nathanson

Brian Nathanson is a recovering certified Project Management Professional now serving as the Head of Product Management Clarity at Broadcom. He is the host of several popular Clarity-related customer webcasts (Office Hours, Release Previews, and the End-to-End Modern UX Demos) and has conducted many hours of both...

Other resources you might be interested in

Video January 20, 2026

Automic Automation Cloud Integration: SAP Integration Suite Integration

Instantly inherit the advanced capabilities of your enterprise solution, enabling you to deliver your digital transformation more quickly and successfully.

Watch Video

Video January 20, 2026

Automic Automation Cloud Integration: Azure Power BI Agent Integration

Learn to integrate Automic Automation with Azure Power BI to schedule refreshes, monitor jobs, and orchestrate cloud workloads from a single interface.

Watch Video

Office Hours January 15, 2026

Rally Office Hours: January 15, 2026

The Scope Change for Work Items widget has been released. This new widget tracks changes in work items, specifically user stories, defects, defect suites, and test sets, within a time box, such as an...

View Recording

Course January 9, 2026

ValueOps ConnectALL: Creating a Universal Adapter

This course helps you understand the complete workflow for creating a Universal Adapter in ValueOps ConnectALL.

Go to Training

Course January 9, 2026

AAI - Monitoring Jobstreams Using Business Areas

Learn how business areas help you organize and focus your monitoring in AAI. Find out where business area filters appear and how to refine your daily views.

Go to Training

Office Hours January 8, 2026

Rally Office Hours: January 8, 2026

Learn about using the capacity forecasting screen and Monte Carlo simulations in Rally. The session also includes a Q&A segment covering topics such as tracking work handoffs with tasks or custom...

View Recording

Course January 7, 2026

DX NetOps Smarts: Overview

Learn how DX NetOps Smarts discovers hybrid environments to map complex topologies, then provides unified real-time monitoring with advanced fault management and automated root-cause analysis.

Go to Training

Blog December 22, 2025

Top 3 Trends Defining Network Observability in 2026

Discover the three specific trends that will define network observability in 2026. See how unified observability and predictive AI will shape the landscape.

Read Blog

Office Hours December 18, 2025

Rally Office Hours: December 18, 2025

Rally Office Hours features an AI-driven artifact breakdown tool that creates child items from features/stories. The Q&A covers capacity planning, forecasting and burnup charts.

View Recording