Projectification without projects? Theorizing temporal structures of agile-based organizing

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Research has revealed a surge in the reliance on projects to organize firms and society in recent decades, a phenomenon termed projectification, yet has remained oblivious to the fact that how projects are organized has changed, as, hence, has the nature of projectification. Grounded in the 4Ts—time, task, team, and transition—we analyze through an ethnographic work at a financial firm how agile-based organizing reshaped the firm’s temporal structures from temporary toward “continuous temporariness,” a continuous flow interrupted by short, orchestrated pauses. This form of projectification addresses temporal fragmentation in classic projects but introduces new challenges. Overall, agile-based projectification enriches project-based organizing with new temporal structures that challenge traditional notions of temporary organizations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102786
JournalInternational Journal of Project Management
Volume43
Issue number8
Number of pages13
ISSN0263-7863
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11.2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • Agile, Agile at scale, Projectification, Temporal structuring, Temporary organization, Time and temporality
  • Management studies