Building theories of project management : Past research, questions for the future

• Project management has long been considered as an academic field for planning-oriented techniques and, in many respects, an application of engineering science and optimization theory. Much research has also been devoted to the search for the generic factors of project success. Project management has, however, in the last decade received wider interest from other academic disciplines. As the field rapidly expands, the need for an internal discussion and debate about project management research increases. Project management and project organization is a complex subject and, we argue, is usefully examined from several perspectives. In this paper we discuss the emerging perspectives within the project field. The paper also presents a number of questions that project research to a greater extent should acknowledge. The questions concern issues such as why project organizations exist, how they behave and why they differ. The principal argument is that too much effort has been dedicated to clarifying the reasons of project success and failure, while downplaying a number of important research questions that need to be discussed in order to further the knowledge about project management. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.

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