Why We Call It Product Development

As a trainer/coach and a member of the agile community. We
have tried that and shown it to be the wrong strategy.

Product Development is a much better choice of words.

Here is one reason why… If I say software development the first word
that comes to mind for most people is code. That means if you write
code scrum/agile is for you and if you don’t it does not apply.
Repeatedly I have seen organizations become crippled in their
application of agile from that simple (seemingly small innocent ) turn
of words. XP, another agile practice got much of it’s bad rap simply
because it was code/software centric in it’s wording.

For much of the reasons I outlined above and for some others I have
not we don’t say software development. Instead we use the word product
development which broadens the context in an appropriate direction and
allows for better balance and understanding to occur in practice.

Sharing and communicating these concepts without causing people to lock
them down is very hard and requires extreme attention to practical
use. Concepts are not words but words are all we have so chose them
carefully and then watch for understanding.

Limiting focus to software development and that language will quickly
cause loss of balance in my experience.