Reconstructing Project Management
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Reconstructing Project Management
Author: Peter W. G. Morris
language: en
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date: 2013-05-28
This hugely informative and wide-ranging analysis on the management of projects, past, present and future, is written both for practitioners and scholars. Beginning with a history of the discipline’s development, Reconstructing Project Management provides an extensive commentary on its practices and theoretical underpinnings, and concludes with proposals to improve its relevancy and value. Written not without a hint of attitude, this is by no means simply another project management textbook. The thesis of the book is that ‘it all depends on how you define the subject’; that much of our present thinking about project management as traditionally defined is sometimes boring, conceptually weak, and of limited application, whereas in reality it can be exciting, challenging and enormously important. The book draws on leading scholarship and case studies to explore this thesis. The book is divided into three major parts. Following an Introduction setting the scene, Part 1 covers the origins of modern project management – how the discipline has come to be what it is typically said to be; how it has been constructed – and the limitations of this traditional model. Part 2 presents an enlarged view of the discipline and then deconstructs this into its principal elements. Part 3 then reconstructs these elements to address the challenges facing society, and the implications for the discipline, in the years ahead. A final section reprises the sweep of the discipline’s development and summarises the principal insights from the book. This thoughtful commentary on project (and program, and portfolio) management as it has developed and has been practiced over the last 60-plus years, and as it may be over the next 20 to 40, draws on examples from many industry sectors around the world. It is a seminal work, required reading for everyone interested in projects and their management.
Reconstructing Project Management Reprised
Many academic researchers are primarily interested in projects as examples of temporary organizations, rather than in questions about building a discipline for the delivery of goals. This paper explores whether there is a discipline for managing projects and that this discipline needs to be enlarged from how many perceive it today. In doing so, it summarizes the mission, content, and results of the book, Reconstructing Project Management (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) by Peter Morris. The first part traces how knowledge of the field developed, and how the subject has come to be constructed in the way we think of it today. The second part takes this construct apart, or deconstructs it, by describing the range of functions and skills that collectively constitute the latest thinking on the discipline. The third part looks at how these elements of project management may need to be recombined--reconstructed--to meet today's needs and tomorrow's challenges. The paper specifically investigates how our knowledge of managing projects was invented; how robust that knowledge is, in the sense of being reliable and true; and in what way and to what ends should we be using that knowledge and why. It compares management of projects with traditional project management and examines the bodies of knowledge and critical success factor studies. In addition, it lists some of the current issues in project management as a discipline, and identifies some of the topics in the discipline of managing projects. General principles of a discipline for developing and delivering outcomes that meet sponsor's goals are also discussed. The paper concludes by identifying examples of opportunities where project management can implement this value-enhancing approach.
Reconstructing Project Management
Author: Peter W. G. Morris
language: en
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date: 2013-03-08
This hugely informative and wide-ranging analysis on the management of projects, past, present and future, is written both for practitioners and scholars. Beginning with a history of the discipline’s development, Reconstructing Project Management provides an extensive commentary on its practices and theoretical underpinnings, and concludes with proposals to improve its relevancy and value. Written not without a hint of attitude, this is by no means simply another project management textbook. The thesis of the book is that ‘it all depends on how you define the subject’; that much of our present thinking about project management as traditionally defined is sometimes boring, conceptually weak, and of limited application, whereas in reality it can be exciting, challenging and enormously important. The book draws on leading scholarship and case studies to explore this thesis. The book is divided into three major parts. Following an Introduction setting the scene, Part 1 covers the origins of modern project management – how the discipline has come to be what it is typically said to be; how it has been constructed – and the limitations of this traditional model. Part 2 presents an enlarged view of the discipline and then deconstructs this into its principal elements. Part 3 then reconstructs these elements to address the challenges facing society, and the implications for the discipline, in the years ahead. A final section reprises the sweep of the discipline’s development and summarises the principal insights from the book. This thoughtful commentary on project (and program, and portfolio) management as it has developed and has been practiced over the last 60-plus years, and as it may be over the next 20 to 40, draws on examples from many industry sectors around the world. It is a seminal work, required reading for everyone interested in projects and their management.