The organization of work can be traced back to through time. The construction of buildings, bridges, and towns; the cultivation of food and care of animals; the management of governments and societies are all documented throughout history. These adaptations to the environment took, and continue to take, coordination and management. While the ongoing care and maintenance of these examples is not, by definition, a project, their first initiation and start up to the point of continuous “business as usual” is.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a Project as “…a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result…” It further defines Project Management as “…the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project
requirements….(PMI, 2008).” Effectively adapting an organizations process from one state of being is a “project” and by applying specified skills and knowledge, the person or people assigned to the effort are the “project managers.”
Until relatively recently, what was missing from the realm of project management was a codified body of knowledge and structured application of that knowledge. This began to change in 1969, with the founding of the Project Management Institute. The development of project management best practices can be found in the form of the PMI “Project Management Body of Knowledge” (PMBOK). Currently in its fourth edition, the PMBOK aggregates PM practices and supplies project managers and project
management practitioners with a guide and offers suggested tools to be used for successful project management. The PMBOK outlines steps recognized by experienced PMs in an effort to provide guidance and foster successful project efforts.
These steps are organized into five phases of a project. First is the “Initiating” phase. In this phase, tools and steps are suggested, such as project definition and authorization development. Second is the “Planning” phase. In this phase, PM activities include scope definition, project objective refinement, and course of action definition. Phase 3 is the “Executing” phase. In this phase a PM carries out the processes needed to complete the defined work. The fourth phase is “Monitoring and Controlling,” and includes activities such as tracking, reviewing, and regulating project and project resources progress. The
fifth and final stage provided by the PMBOK is “Closing.” In this phase the PM conducts activities to formally end and bring closure to a project (PMI, 2008).
As a discipline, project management lacks a firm theoretical base (Koskela, 2008). When compared to other areas of management, operations, and organizational study, the area of project management practice is less academically developed. The academic literature is sparse regarding a broadly accepted theory of project management, and most theories are broad in nature and attempt to explain the whole of project management, and apply either theories of management or operations. Koskela and Howell’s analysis of project management theory argues that current theories of project management are obsolete (2008), and the underlying theoretical foundation is actually bi-modal, or often viewed from one of two separate established theoretical subjects . They link the current project
management body of knowledge to one of project and one of management.
From a “Theory of Project” view, Koskela and Howell associate project management with operations transformation theory. In essence conceptualizing Project Management as a type of production to be managed and therefore conforming to the transformation view (2008). This is understandable in that projects are, for the most part, undertaken to transform or change something from one state to another.
From a “Theory of Management” view, Koskela and Howell look at three areas of management: planning, controlling, and executing. Each of these areas are represented and discussed in the PMBOK (2008) as vital parts of managing a projects. In their view, “project management seems to be based on three theories of management: management-as planning, the dispatching model and the thermostat model (2008, p. 6).”
Through their analysis of project management theory, Koskela and Howell argue that the
theoretical base of project management put forth at the time was lacking, and that complimentary or better theories could be found. The importance of this presentation is that it reinforces the need for substantial theories that can change the project management paradigm.
Contrary to Koskela and Howell is the claim put forth by Jugdev, who claims the theoretical foundation is still in its infancy (Jugdev, 2008). His analysis of the project management literature
provides several dominant themes in project management publications. These themes include examining project management from the temporary organization, the optimization school, network planning techniques and success factors. Additionally, theoretical views include those rooted in engineering, mathematics, and the social sciences.
The fact that projects are short-term and temporary, emphasizes the need to share and convert knowledge. Due to the temporary nature of projects, the project personnel tend to be fluid, as does the knowledge they bring. The fluidity of personnel means the knowledge base of project teams can change, and can be exacerbated in a project-based or matrixed organization (Bresnen, Goussevskaia, & Swan, 2004). This change is not only from project to project, but within the same project as it moves through the various project phases. It is not uncommon for team members to join and leave the project team effort based on the needs of the project and/or organization. PM’s who actively seek to capture, share, and create the project and team member knowledge can ease their efforts through the project and position the organization for future success.
Another stream of research marries the theories of knowledge management and the knowledge- based theory of the firm to project management. For the most part, this research focuses on the
application of knowledge management and its development in organizations through project management practices. Common among these discussions and proposals of project management is the emphasis on the over-arching project or the different project activities, with the goal to provide a framework for project success and the extension to organizational success. Missing is a theoretical discussion or model of the role of the PM in relation to knowledge creation.