Delivery starts with understanding the level you are working at. You cannot deliver a product without having a series of projects. You cannot treat a platform like a product or a project like a platform. They are different things that act in different ways.
If this seems intuitive, you’re either confused about it or one of the special few. In the technology world, knowing the difference between a Project and a Product is extremely difficult. A series of Projects can suddenly turn into a Product with no one realizing it. You may set out to build a Product and find yourself sitting on a full blown platform.
Stopping to look at your environment and understand whether you need a Project Manager or a Product Manager may be the difference between success and failure. The skill sets are very different and sometimes hard to transfer between the areas.
A good Product Manager always keeps in mind the good of the entire Product. No single project is allowed to detract from the overall. Priorities are set based not on the value of the one item but on what’s good for everyone. Whereas a Project Manager is given a set of requirements and a deadline and told to get after it. Products evolve, Projects are completed.
Platforms, on the other hand, provide a base for Products to be built on or for Projects to be completed with. Platforms enable others to do crazy things. Oracle, Salesforce, WordPress, and Facebook are Platforms. Office, Adobe Acrobat, and Visual Studio are Products. Implementing a new Product into your environment requires a Project.