Exploring Research in Project Management: Nine Schools of Project Management Research (Part 3)

This “Letter From the Editor” is the third part of a series in which I am presenting the results of research undertaken with my colleagues J. Rodney Turner1 and Frank T. Anbari.2 The purpose of the research was to review and map all research conducted in the field of project management and its main characteristics. I outline here these major schools of thought and review progress, trends, and potential research in two of them (Optimization School and Modeling School).

[1]  R. Müller,et al.  Choosing Appropriate Project Managers: Matching their Leadership Style to the Type of Project , 2006 .

[2]  Brian Hobbs,et al.  Aligning Capability with Strategy: Categorizing Projects to do the Right Projects and to do Them Right , 2006 .

[3]  Julien Pollack,et al.  The changing paradigms of project management , 2007 .

[4]  Elaine K. Yakura,et al.  Charting Time: Timelines as Temporal Boundary Objects , 2002 .

[5]  K. T. Yeo.  Systems thinking and project management — time to reunite , 1993 .

[6]  Russell D. Archibald,et al.  Network-based management systems (PERT/CPM) , 1966 .

[7]  Terry Williams,et al.  Modelling Complex Projects , 2001 .

[8]  Peter W. G. Morris,et al.  The management of projects , 1994 .

[9]  S. M. Kinsella.  Activity-Based Costing: Does it Warrant Inclusion in a Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)? , 2002 .

[10]  J. Turner,et al.  Project Categorization Systems: Aligning Capability With Strategy for Better Results , 2005 .

[11]  Lynn Crawford,et al.  Fundamental uncertainties in projects and the scope of project management , 2006 .

[12]  Aaron J. Shenhar,et al.  How Projects Differ, And What to Do About It , 2007 .

[13]  F.T. Anbari,et al.  Earned Value Project Management Method and Extensions , 2003, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[14]  M. Winter,et al.  Problem structuring in project management: an application of soft systems methodology (SSM) , 2006, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[15]  Ra Neal.  Project definition: The soft-systems approach , 1995 .

[16]  Jonas Söderlund,et al.  On the development of project management research: schools of thought and critique , 2002 .

[17]  Ian McLoughlin,et al.  Sense-making as a process within complex service-led projects , 2005 .

[18]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Soft systems: a fresh perspective for project management , 2003 .

[19]  Donald E. Conlon,et al.  The Role of Project Completion Information in Resource Allocation Decisions , 1993 .

[20]  G. Morgan,et al.  Images of organization, 2nd ed. , 1997 .

[21]  Julien Pollack,et al.  Hard and soft projects: a framework for analysis , 2004 .