Reconstructing Project Management

This hugely informative and wide-ranging analysis on themanagement of projects, past, present and future, is written bothfor practitioners and scholars. Beginning with a history of thediscipline?s development, Reconstructing ProjectManagement provides an extensive commentary on its practicesand theoretical underpinnings, and concludes with proposals toimprove its relevancy and value. Written not without a hint ofattitude, this is by no means simply another project managementtextbook.

The thesis of the book is that ?it all depends on how youdefine the subject?; that much of our present thinking aboutproject management as traditionally defined is sometimes boring,conceptually weak, and of limited application, whereas in realityit can be exciting, challenging and enormously important. The bookdraws on leading scholarship and case studies to explore thisthesis.

The book is divided into three major parts. Following anIntroduction setting the scene, Part 1 covers the origins of modernproject management ? how the discipline has come to be whatit is typically said to be; how it has been constructed ? andthe limitations of this traditional model. Part 2 presents anenlarged view of the discipline and then deconstructs this into itsprincipal elements. Part 3 then reconstructs these elements toaddress the challenges facing society, and the implications for thediscipline, in the years ahead. A final section reprises thesweep of the discipline?s development and summarises theprincipal insights from the book.

This thoughtful commentary on project (and program, andportfolio) management as it has developed and has been practicedover the last 60-plus years, and as it may be over the next 20 to40, draws on examples from many industry sectors around the world.It is a seminal work, required reading for everyone interested inprojects and their management.