Evolution of Project Management Research and Industry-focused Innovations

Authors

  • Alireza Abbasi University of New South Wales - School of Engineering and IT Australia
  • li Jaafari Emeritus Professor and JCS Consultants, Sydney Australia

Keywords:

Project Management, Industry-focused Innovations, APM Body of Knowledge Framework, Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we have investigated the quantity and quality of worldwide research production in the field of “project management” over the past 35 years. We conducted bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database between 1980 and 2014 to develop an understanding of the evolution of project management as a field of endeavour. Using the knowledge of a domain expert in the field of “project management”, we first developed a set of reliable keywords which represent the field. Secondly, we developed a data extraction strategy for searching on the phrase “project management” in the title or keyword or abstract of publications by limiting our sources to journals in English. We observed the evolution of this field by analysing not only the quantity of publications, but also their quality (citations) per year and compared their growth trend in four periods to track the evolutionary trends over the last 35 years. The results of our analysis confirm that both the research themes or topics and the active parties involved in project management research are changing over time. It appears that over the four study periods, the understanding of project management as a research and scientific field has broadened substantially to include human factors, strategy and organisational dynamics and complexity management.

Author Biographies

  • Alireza Abbasi, University of New South Wales - School of Engineering and IT Australia

    Dr Alireza Abbasi is Director of Postgraduate Studies and Coordinator of Project Management programs in the University of New South Wales (UNSW) at Canberra. He obtained his PhD in Project Management from the University of Sydney in 2012 before joining the School of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) at UNSW Canberra. He also holds a graduate certificate in University Learning and Teaching from UNSW Sydney. His research and teaching interests include project management, management science, information systems management and network science. He has written a book, three book chapters and over 60 technical journal and conference papers.

    Dr Abbasi has had several appointments and been involved in different projects in IT/Software, Oil, Education and R&D sectors. He is an active member of several professional bodies including Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), Project Management Institute (PMI), and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM). Dr Alireza Abbasi Director of Postgraduate Studies & Coordinator of Project Management Programs School of Engineering and IT, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra,

  • li Jaafari, Emeritus Professor and JCS Consultants, Sydney Australia

    Professor A. Jaafari currently holds the position of Vice-President, Academic in Education Centre of Australia. Professor Jaafari is the founder and Past President (2004-2015) of Asia Pacific International College. APIC is a recognised degree-granting Australian Higher Education Institution with undergraduate and postgraduate programs in project management, business and information systems. From 1982 to 2004 Professor Jaafari held numerous academic positions at the University of Sydney, including Chair Professor of Project Management. He pioneered the discipline of project management at the University and designed and developed numerous academic programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels that influenced the education of engineers and project managers. He was the chief architect of the Project Management Graduate Program that won a number of national and international awards, and was recognised as a trail-blazing program. In 1990-3 he was Chief Manager, Project Management, at Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) and in that role he was responsible for leading a number of projects in both Australia and overseas. Professor Jaafari has been an active contributor to the literature, including journals and international conferences. He has authored over 190 publications, and presented numerous keynote or plenary lectures in the past 20 years. He is on the editorial board and a reviewer for a number of journals, including the International Journal of Project Management, the International Journal of Information Technology Project Management, etc. Professor Jaafari has also presented seminars and executive training programs in project and strategic management to over 6,000 executives and managers in Europe, Middle East and Asia. He has acted as an expert consultant to a number of Australian organisations, the European Commission and numerous government agencies in Asia and the Middle East. Professor Jaafari has held a number of visiting academic positions in universities in the US, Europe and Asia. Professor Jaafari is perhaps best known for developing competence-based transformative graduate programs at both the University of Sydney and APIC. These programs herald a shift to project-based experiential and reflective learning.

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Published

2022-05-20

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2018): The Journal of Modern Project Management

Section

Articles-JMPM

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Copyright (c) 2022 Alireza Abbasi, li Jaafari

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Evolution of Project Management Research and Industry-focused Innovations. (2022). The Journal of Modern Project Management, 6(1). https://journalmodernpm.com/manuscript/index.php/jmpm/article/view/JMPM01607

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