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

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.