INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 277–279
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman

Editorial

Towards a theory of project management: The nature

of the functions of project management

In my editorial in the last three issues of the journal, I Scope management

have been trying to develop a theory of Project Manage-
ment. Through a series of premises and lemmas, I have at- Scope management is the management of the work of
tempted to derive a structure of Project Management, and the project. At Premise 1, I said a project is a temporary
identify inherent elements of Project Management: organization to which resources are assigned to do work
to deliver beneficial change. So that work needs to be
 In the first article, I looked at the nature of projects managed.
 In the second article, I looked at the nature of project
management Define the objectives
 In the third article, I showed that what I in my books (1,2)
call the five functions of project management are inherent The first step is to define the objectives of scope
management. The objectives of the project are to deliver
In this article, I want to show that the tools required to the beneficial change, and so we need to define the change,
manage some of those five functions should have inherent and the benefit. I previously showed that projects are frac-
features. The five functions are: tal (Lemma 8) and that breakdown structure, and particu-
larly here product breakdown structure, is an inherent
1. managing scope component of project management (Corollary 8). So we
2. managing project organization use product breakdown structure (PBS) to define the objec-
3. managing quality tives of the project, and hence scope management, and to
4. managing cost break those objectives down to components and sub-com-
5. managing time ponents. Product breakdown is the start of scope
management.
The steps of management
Define the means
Premise 3 defined governance as the structure through
which we The work is the means of obtaining the objectives. So
the next step of scope management is to define the work.
 define the objectives That is done through the work breakdown (WBS), also
 define the means of obtaining the objectives identified at Corollary 8 as an essential tool. The tools
 define the means of monitoring progress for managing scope must therefore combine product
breakdown and work breakdown. So far we have reached
This defines the three basic steps that have to be fol- these conclusions by theoretical means. To identify appro-
lowed to manage each of the five functions. At Lemma 7, priate tools we need to turn to experience, and that tells us
I also said the steps of management could be defined as: that configuration management is a tool which combines
product and work breakdown which is useful for managing
 planning what has to be done scope. I called this Empiricism 1.
 organizing by deciding who is responsible for what Defining the means also includes defining the people
 implementing by getting people to take on that who will do the work. So we have to define (some of) the
responsibility project organization. Corollary 8 also tells us we can use
 controlling progress as the work is done organization breakdown (OBS) for that.

0263-7863/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.03.002
278 Editorial / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 277–279
Combining the product breakdown and organization
breakdown at a given level defines the work breakdown.
It tells us who will do what to deliver what products. Expe-
rience tells us that responsibility charts (1,2) are a useful
tool for doing that.
Empiricism 3: Responsibility charts are a useful tool for
combining product, organization and work breakdown
and for defining project organization.
Now I depart for a bit from the theoretical discussion to
express my own views. The way many people talk you might
be forgiven for thinking that the work breakdown was some
fundamental property of the project which exists indepen-
dently of the people doing the work. I disagree. If anything
is a fundamental property it is the product breakdown; the
definition of the work is influenced by the people doing it.
It is a social construct. Thus the work breakdown and the
organization have to be developed together and iteratively.
If there is an order we should define these things it is PBS
then OBS then WBS. Many people do it in the reverse order.
But you might argue that product breakdown is itself influ-
enced by the people doing the work and so all three should
be developed together and iteratively.
Quality management
Next we turn our attention to quality management.
Define the objectives
First, we need to consider what we want to manage the
quality of. Premise 1 (and the above discussion) tells us we
want to manage the quality of the project’s product, and
Corollary 8 (and the above discussion) suggests we can
Quality Assurance
Right first time
Quality of
Product
Quality of
Management
Process
Quality Control
Attitudes
Zero defect
Fig. 1. Five element model of good quality.
do that through the product breakdown. We also want
the project to be managed well, so we want to manage
the quality of the management process, so we need to de-
fine objectives for that.
Thus, we have derived the first two elements of my five
element model for managing quality in projects, Fig. 1
(1,2). We need to manage the quality of
 the product
 the management process
Corollary 18a: On projects we need to manage the quality
of the product and the management process.
Define the means of achieving the objectives
This Quality Assurance. We define how we will achieve
good quality on projects. This is the third element of my
five element model.
Corollary 18b: Quality Assurance is an inherent element of
quality management on projects.
Define the means of monitoring performance
This is Quality Control, and is the fourth element of my
five element model.
Corollary 18c: Quality Control is an inherent element of
quality management on projects.
Corollary 18d: There are four inherent components of qual-
ity management on projects:
 assurance of the quality of the product
 control of the quality of the product
 assurance of the quality of the management process
 control of the quality of the management process
The best way of achieving these four things mainly
derives from empirical evidence. We can say from control
theory that control should follow a classic feed back
loop:
 plan for the desired results
 monitor the results that are actually achieved
 calculate the difference
 take action to eliminate the differences
But again how those four steps are best achieved can
only be determined empirically.
The fifth and final element of my five element model,
that we should maintain good attitudes to achieve quality
also only derives from observation.
Empiricism 4: Good attitudes are essential for achieving
good quality on projects.
 Editorial / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 277–279
Managing time and cost
Similar arguments apply for managing time and cost.
We need to define
 the objectives
 the means of achieving the objectives
 the means of monitoring progress
Controlling progress will follow a classic feedback loop:
 define the objectives
 monitor performance
 calculate variances
 take action to recover the plan
I suggested at Lemma 9 that 500 years of accounting
theory suggests that to manage cost we should plan for
the amount of work to be performed and the cost of that
work. Then we should calculate the difference between
the amount of work planned and the amount of work per-
formed. In accounting theory this is called the volume var-
iance, but in Project Management has become known as
the Schedule Performance Index, SPI. We should also cal-
culate the difference between the cost of the work per-
formed and the plan. In accounting theory this is called
279
the cost variance, but in Project Management has become
known as the Cost Performance Index. When applied to
Project Management this standard accounting practice be-
comes Earned Value Analysis. So we see how accounting
theory enlightens Project Management Theory.
Similarly the more recently developed theory of Opera-
tions Research suggests how we can manage and control
time on projects. Because this theory is more recently devel-
oped than the accounting theory from which Earned Value
Analysis derives, I was only willing to say it is based on
empirical evidence (Empiricism 2) rather than being theo-
retically derived.
In the next issue I am going to look at programme and
portfolio management and the management of the project-
based organization.
References
[1] Turner JR. The handbook of project-based management. 2nd
ed. London: McGraw-Hill; 1999.
[2] Turner JR. The management large projects and programmes
for web delivery. Aldershot: Gower; 2004.
J. Rodney Turner 1
Lille School of Management
E-mail address: rodneyturner@europrojex.co.uk
1
Present address: Wildwood, Manor Close, East Horsley, Surrey KT24
6SA, United Kingdom. Tel./fax: +44 1483282344.