The Evolution Of Project Management Practice

Project practice has undergone significant changes requiring new ways of thinking about and managing projects. The single focus on the staged delivery of artefacts is gradually being replaced by a wider interest in stakeholders, value, benefits, and complexity. As a result there is a growing interest in the development of practitioner capabilities, grounded in the recognition that dealing with permeable boundaries and unstructured situations transcends normative processes. Modern practitioners increasingly utilise deliberative and reflective approaches, often challenging received wisdom and traditional interpretations. This volume provides a sampling of some of the best writing in the project domain, enabling readers to access a wider group of authors, ideas, and perspectives. Key topics covered include agility and programme management, planning, people, business cases, contracts, teams, sponsorship, collaboration, strategy, patterns, context, change, and benefits. The main aims of the collection are to reflect on the state of practice within the discipline; to propose new extensions and additions to good practice; to offer new insights and perspectives; to distil new knowledge; and, to provide a way of sampling a range of the most promising ideas, perspectives and styles of writing from some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the discipline.

Updated to reflect the Project Management Institute’s (PMI’s) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Fifth Edition, the new edition of this bestselling textbook continues to provide a practical and up-to-date overview of project management theory. Project Management Theory and Practice, Second Edition explains project management theory using language that is easy to understand. The book integrates the organizational environment that surrounds a project to supply the well-rounded knowledge of theories, organizational issues, and human behavior needed to manage real-world projects effectively. This edition includes a new chapter on Stakeholder Management, which is a new knowledge area covered in the new PMBOK® Guide. It also provides updated references and a new streamlined organization of chapters. There are several project-related model frameworks sponsored by PMI®, and many of these are covered in this text. Specifically, the book details: Work breakdown structures (WBS) Earned value management (EVM) Enterprise project management (EPMO) Portfolio management (PPM) Professional responsibility and ethics For many of the major sections, the PMI Global Accreditation curriculum learning objectives have been adapted with permission of PMI and used to guide the content. Filled with end-of-chapter questions, scheduling and budgeting problems, and scoping projects, this text is ideal for classroom use and essential reading for anyone seeking project management certification. The book also includes sample empirically oriented worksheets that demonstrate various management decision and analysis-oriented tools.

Although there are numerous project management resources available, most are either too academic, focus too heavily on IT, or provide quick-fix advice without the theory required to understand why the solutions work. Following and expanding on PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), Project Management Theory and Practice provides students with a complete overview of project management theory—in language they can easily understand. This classroom-tested textbook translates the abstract model vocabulary and processes from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Fourth Edition into accessible discussions complete with contemporary views and projections for the future. The text integrates the organizational environment that surrounds a project to supply students with the well-rounded knowledge of theories, organizational issues, and human behavior needed to manage real-world projects effectively. Providing a clear picture of the state of the art in project management, it details numerous project-related frameworks, including: Enterprise project management Project portfolio management Work breakdown structures Earned value management Professional responsibility Project team productivity The text reaches beyond traditional core project management topics to include discussions on enterprise maturity, virtual and outsourced organizations, project management offices, operational governance, and multi-project management. Filled with numerous end-of-chapter questions, scheduling and budgeting problems, scoping projects, and sample worksheets that illustrate various analytical tools and management decisions, this is the ideal text for classroom use and essential reading for anyone seeking project management certification.

Project Management in Practice, 7th Edition presents an applied approach to the essential tools, strategies, and techniques students must understand to achieve success in their future careers. Emphasizing the technical aspects of the project management life cycle, this popular textbook offers streamlined, student-friendly coverage of project activity, risk planning, budgeting and scheduling, resource allocation, project monitoring, evaluating and closing the project, and more. Providing new and updated content throughout, the seventh edition’s concise pedagogy and hands-on focus is ideally suited for use in one-semester courses or modules on project management. Clear and precise chapters describe fundamental project management concepts while addressing the skills real-world project managers must possess to meet the strategic goals of their organizations. Integrated throughout the text are comprehensive cases that build upon the material from previous chapters—complemented by wealth of illustrative examples, tables and figures, review questions, and discussion topics designed to reinforce key information.

Kozak-Holland takes a hard look at the history of project management and how it evolved over the past 4,500 years. Examining archaeological evidence, artwork, and surviving manuscripts, he provides evidence of how each of the nine knowledge areas of project management have been practiced throughout the ages.

The Oxford Handbook of Project Management presents and discusses leading ideas in the management of projects. Positioning project management as a domain much broader and more strategic than simply 'execution management', this Handbook draws on the insights of over 40 scholars to chart the development of the subject over the last 50 years or more as an area of increasing practical and academic interest. It suggests we could be entering an emerging 'third wave' of analysis and interpretation following its early technical and operational beginnings and the subsequent shift to a focus on projects and their management. Topics dealt with include: the historical evolution of the subject; its theoretical base; professionalism; business and societal context; strategy; organization; governance; innovation; overruns; risk; information management; procurement; relationships and trust; knowledge management; practice and teams. This handbook is of particular relevance to those interested in the research issues underlying project management.

Project Management: Theory and Practice, Third Edition gives students a broad and real flavor of project management. Bringing project management to life, it avoids being too sterilely academic and too narrowly focused on a particular industry view. It takes a model-based approach towards project management commonly used in all industries. The textbook aligns with the latest version of the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide, which is considered to be the de facto standard for project management. However, it avoids that standard’s verbiage and presents students with readable and understandable explanations. Core chapters align with the Project Management Institute’s model as well as explain how this model fits real-world projects. The textbook can be used as companion to the standard technical model and help those studying for various project management certifications. The textbook takes an in-depth look at the following areas important to the standard model: Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) Earned Value Management (EVM) Enterprise project management Portfolio management (PPM) Professional responsibility and ethics Agile life cycle The text begins with a background section (Chapters 1–9) containing material outside of the standard model structure but necessary to prepare students for the 10 standard model knowledge areas covered in the chapters that follow. The text is rounded out by eight concluding chapters that explain advanced planning approaches models and projects’ external environments. Recognizing that project management is an evolving field, the textbook includes section written by industry experts who share their insight and expertise on cutting-edge topics. It prepares students for upcoming trends and changes in project management while providing an overview of the project management environment today. In addition to guiding students through current models and standards, Project Management: Theory and Practice, Third Edition prepares students for the future by stimulating their thinking beyond the accepted pragmatic view.

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.