Software development IS product development
Great analysis by Corey at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LeanSoftwareEngineering/~3/142106190/
This part especially hits home with how I feel about things I've seen (emphasis mine):
"Software methodology’s understanding of the meaning of quality,
reliability, and customer utility is positively retarded in comparison
to the understanding of the broader product development community."
As he discusses, there are a TON of important lessons being ignored EVERY DAY by software practitioners. This is one of the main reasons why ex-software developers rarely seem to make good project leads... the technology and the details of the technical purity are too important to them. While these aspects ARE critical, there are many much more important lessons to be considered that can be seen by opening your mind to the experiences in product development from across the board. Let the auto industry teach you about user experience, let pharmaceutical companies teach you about design space exploration, let the companies that make implanted pacemakers teach you about quality control, learn how to expand existing systems by looking at the London Underground, learn automation from the post office, and learn interaction design from cell phone companies... all of these nearby, obvious industries have a LOT to offer us, and we ignore it all too often.
What have you done to fix this? This week? Today?
What will you do tomorrow? Next week? Next Month?
How will you contribute to fixing our profession?
"Software leadership needs to climb out of its little box and see itself
in the larger context if it ever expects to be taken seriously by other
engineering fields."