Constructing and negotiating boundaries between product management and project management in digital product environments

Abstract

Purpose This paper examines how practitioners make sense of and negotiate boundaries between product management and project management in digital product environments, with particular attention to temporal orientations, governance interfaces, role accountabilities and decision rights. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an exploratory qualitative design. Data were collected through two facilitated workshops involving 17 practitioners from multiple sectors engaged in digital product development. Key concept elicitation, rich pictures, conflict annotations and group discussions were analyzed using open coding. The resulting boundary issues were subsequently interpreted through the lens of boundary work theory. Findings The findings suggest collaborative boundary work through shared artefacts and coordination practices and competitive boundary work through negotiations over role jurisdiction, scope, budget, product definition, accountability and decision rights. Configurational boundary work was not directly observed as an established organizational practice but is interpreted as a potential higher-order response to persistent governance tensions. Research limitations/implications The study extends theories of project temporality and governance by integrating product-centric perspectives into project research. Practical implications The findings inform managers on designing hybrid governance structures, clarifying roles and aligning product roadmaps with project execution to sustain long-term value in digital environments. Originality/value The study contributes a boundary-work explanation of how practitioners make the product–project interface workable in digital product environments. It advances project management theory by showing how boundary-work perspectives can help interpret projects as increasingly nested and execution-focused within ongoing product lifecycles in digital environments.