Reconstructing Project Management

The book is designed to offer a thoughtful commentary on project management as it has been practiced and taught over the last 60 or more years, and as it may be over the next 20 to 40, drawing on examples from several industry sectors.

Its thesis is that 'it all depends on how you define the subject' - that much of our present thinking about p.m. as traditionally defined is boring, sometimes conceptually weak or even flawed, and/or of limited application, whereas in reality what it can offer is exciting, challenging and potentially enormously useful. The book explores this hypothesis drawing on leading scholarship and practitioner perceptions.

Section 1 sets the scene - the purpose and context of the book. Section 2 covers the origins of modern project management and the limitations of the traditional project management model. Section 3 dissects many of the challenges still facing project management, in doing so it examines many of the more difficult, interesting and intractable issues in the discipline today. Section 4 focuses on opportunities open to the discipline in the (increasingly challenging) years ahead.