The trajectory of project management: why EPOS is important †

This paper welcomes the pluralistic knowledge base represented by EPOS, it being particularly appropriate to our efforts to understand the knowledge needed to manage projects and programs effectively. The paper charts the advances in our thinking about project and program management from the early a-theoretic NASA/DoE days, through a later period reflecting our growing recognition of the importance of managing the Front-End, then to the ‘Third Wave’ of managing the institutional context, whether internal or external, in which the project is embedded. Greater interaction between academia and practitioners is called for. EPOS is well positioned to run with these and similar initiatives.

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