Reconstructing Project Management (PDF)

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.