INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman

Uncovering the trends in project management: Journal emphases

over the last 10 years
Lynn Crawford, Julien Pollack *, David England
Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, Building 6, level 5, University of Technology, Sydney, 702 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia

Received 12 November 2004; received in revised form 12 July 2005; accepted 14 October 2005

Abstract

The field of project management continues to develop in response to changing emphases in the management community and the
demands of new project management application areas. This paper uncovers the trends of emphasis within the project management lit-
erature over the period 1994–2003, by analysing articles in the International Journal of Project Management and the Project Management
Journal. Trends identified in this study are then compared to trends of emphasis identified in a variety of previous studies of changes to
the field. These results are then synthesised to provide a overall impression of how the field is changing.

2005 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Research trends; Text analysis

1. Introduction 2. Previous research

Project management, as a profession and area of
research, continues to grow and develop. In response to
project management being applied in new industries, coun-
tries and application areas, the demands on project man-
agement continue to change. These changes alter the way
project management is perceived, the commonly accepted
views of what it is to practice project management, and
the way the field is represented in the literature.
A variety of previous studies have already examined
changes to the field, using many different approaches, find-
ing diverse and sometimes contradictory results. This study
reconciles these different results and adds new findings,
examining the changing development of the field, as repre-
sented by keywords identified in the last 10 years of the
International Journal of Project Management (IJPM) and
the Project Management Journal (PMJ). Tendencies in
the literature are identified, which indicate the future direc-
tion of the profession.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9514 8727/8754; fax: +61 2 9514
8875.
E-mail address: Julien.Pollack@uts.edu.au (J. Pollack).
It is arguable whether project management is applied
consistently and generically. Crawford [1] has found varia-
tion in project management knowledge and practices
between industries, countries and application areas. Due
to this variation in understanding and application of pro-
ject management, it is useful to understand which kinds
of projects dominate the literature on project management.
However, it is difficult to establish the conclusive distri-
bution of project size or practice over industry sectors, as
responses to surveys are subject to sample bias. The influ-
ence of industry bias is identified by Evaristo and van
Fenema [2, p. 276], who state that ‘‘. . .the current knowl-
edge based on the management of projects emanates from
large capital construction projects responsible for only 10%
of the projects.’’ Betts and Lansley [3, p. 211] found that in
project management ‘‘. . .by far the most frequently
addressed industry was construction, followed by papers
relating to the information and service sector and the pro-
cess industries.’’
In a survey by Pinto and Slevin [4, p. 70], it was found
that the construction industry constituted ‘‘. . .44% of the
sample.’’ The two main industry sectors identified in a

0263-7863/$30.00
2005 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.10.005
176 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184
study by Themistocleous and Wearne [5, p. 11] were
construction (46%); and, services (30%). The two main
industry sectors in a survey by Zobel and Wearne [6, p.
37] were found to be: services (41%); and construction
(23%). By contrast, the influence of sample choice becomes
clear when the above industry distributions are compared
to research by White and Fortune [7, p. 3] which found that
over 25% of respondents were from the IT industry, 8%
were from engineering and 2% were construction.
Regardless of the ÔtrueÕ breakdown of project manage-
ment amongst all industry sectors, it is clear from these
studies that project management practice is heavily influ-
enced by research emanating from the construction indus-
try. If, as Evaristo and van Fenema [2, p. 276] have found,
this sector represents only a small percent of the total num-
ber of projects executed, then there is an associated risk
that research conclusions may be unquestioningly and
invalidly transferred between industry sectors.
In order to understand the field of project management
as it currently exists, it can be useful to understand how it
has changed over time. As a field, project management is
regularly facing new challenges, as the tools, methods
and approaches to management that comprise the disci-
pline are applied to different areas, for different ends, in dif-
ferent cultures. As an ‘‘emerging profession’’ [8, p. 3], the
field continues to grow and adapt, and can be said to have
come along way from its origins in the 1950s, as academics
and practitioners add new insight to the already wide range
of practice options.
During the 1950s, network analysis and planning tech-
niques, like PERT and CPM, formed the focus of develop-
ment in project management. In the 1960s, these techniques
continued to be popular in the construction industry, but
Cost/Scheduling Control System Criteria (C/SCSC) gained
popularity within the defence and aerospace industries.
Developments in the field of project management in the
1960s also included the formation of two major profes-
sional associations [9].
Shenhar [10] notes a focus on teamwork as a defining
feature of project management in the 1970s, while Stretton
[11] notes an emphasis on breakdown structures and sys-
tems concepts. The 1980s were typified by a focus on pro-
ject organisation, project risk [10], the project front end,
external influences to projects, and initial work on the
development of project management standards [12].
Already a wide variety of topics can be seen to have
influenced the field, some of which have left a lasting
impression, while others have risen and dissipated as
momentary areas of enquiry. Pascale [13, p. 19] analyses
changes to the general management field since World
War II, and notes that the idea of the professional manager
relies on premise of the relevance of generic concepts that
underlie management in all situations. Managerial tech-
niques have become a ‘‘packaged goods industry’’, with
the consequence that management techniques are only
applied superficially or while fashionable, often only sur-
viving for a short period. A great deal of similarity can
be seen between the forces influencing the general manage-
ment and project management communities.
Many of the past management fads have had merit.
While ‘‘. . .there are valid aspects to most of these ideas,
what is wrong is the piecemeal fashion in which they are
implemented. . .’’ [14, p. 17]. Because of the superficial or
transitory way in which many past management ideas have
been applied, there has been little chance for in-depth
learning regarding their efficacy. ‘‘Not surprisingly, ideas
acquired with ease are discarded with ease. Fads ebb, flow
– and even change by 180 degrees’’ [13, p. 20]. Similar
changes can be seen within the project management
literature.
3. Recent changes to the profession
Change in the practice of project management does not
continue at a steady pace. The rate at which new ideas are
introduced to a field can be related to a variety of factors.
Pascale [13, p. 18] links the consumption rate of manage-
ment fads to times of sagging fortunes and managerial
panic. However, the introduction of new ideas to a field
can also be related to expansion into new application areas
and inclusion of new practitioners, who bring new perspec-
tives and challenge established patterns of behaviour. For
instance, in 2000, Urli and Urli [15, p. 33] indicated that
the ‘‘. . .field of project management has undergone very
important developments during the last 10 years. . .’’
involving the extension of project management into new
fields of practice.
Seven studies stand out as relevant to an analysis of
trends in the field of project management. Betts and Lans-
ley [3] examined the first 10 years worth of articles in IJPM,
using a system of weighted classification, covering the years
1983–1992. Themistocleous and Wearne [5] have provided
a similar study, examining the frequency of project man-
agement topics between 1984 and 1998. Their study centres
on IJPM, with limited comparison to PMJ. Zobel and
Wearne [6] used the same method as Themistocleous and
Wearne [5] to examine topic coverage in four project man-
agement conferences between 1996 and 1998. Morris, Patel
and Wearne [16] have also completed a survey of interest,
documenting the review of, and possible changes to, the
UK Association for Project ManagementÕs Body of
Knowledge. Morris [17] provides a portrait of contempo-
rary project management research by examining the most
popular topics in papers and book reviews from IJPM,
PMJ and PM Network between 1990 and 1999.
Urli and Urli [15] used a ‘‘scientometric method’’ of text
analysis to analyse changes to the field. This approach was
used to identify tendencies for association of keywords in
all papers identified as relevant to project management in
the electronic database ABI-INFORM, published within
the period 1987–1996. Their study is unique in that their
method purportedly elicits ‘‘. . .the most significant themes
as defined by academics themselves rather than by an a pri-
ori classification’’ [15, p. 34]. Kloppenborg and Opfer also
 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184 177

examined tendencies within the field of project manage-
ment, looking for past, present and future trends. Their
study purportedly analysed ‘‘. . .the vast majority of pub-
licly accessible project management research that has been
published in the English language between 1960 and 1999’’
[18, p. 52].
Although these studies examine different time periods,
using different methods, comparison of the results received
is interesting. The most significant trends identified in each
of these above six papers have been identified and tabu-
lated in Table 1. The category titles that have been used
in Table 1 are taken directly from the relevant authors
work. Four different kinds of trend are identified in these
different papers: topics which are identified as of strong
interest to the field of project management; topics which
are not of interest; those topics of increasing interest; and
those of decreasing interest.
What immediately stands out in cursory examination of
Table 1 is the variation in themes identified. Conclusions
drawn from this might be that the interests of project man-
agers have changed over the different periods studied. This,
however, does not explain the differences in results for

Table 1
Comparison of identified trends in project management
Dates covered by study Themistocleous Zobel and Urli and Urli Betts and Lansley Morris et al. Kloppenborg and Morris
and Wearne [5] Wearne [6] [15] [3] [16] Opfer [18] [17]
1984–1998 1996–1998 1987–1996 1983–1992 Pre 2000 1960–1999 1990–1999
Communication ››
Competency ›› X
Context/environment X X
Contracts X
Cost X
Financial management X
Goals, strategies ·
HR projects ››
Human factors X
Industrial relations X
Information management X X ›› X
Information systems X
Innovation ››
Integrative management ·
Leadership ›› X X
Legal awareness X
Life cycles X
Management by projects ››
Managers X
Monitor and control X X X
Operations research X
Optimising X
Organisational change ››
Performance ›› ››
PERT ››
Planning X X flfl X
Procurement/purchasing X X X
Program management X
Project close · ·
Project start-up · · ››
Project organisation X Xflfl
Quality X›› X X
Requirements management ·
Risk X X X X
Safety, health, environment X
Scheduling X›› X
Stakeholder management ››
Standards/certification ››
Stress ››
Success criteria ›› · X
Systems management ·
Teamwork X X
Time X X
Table key: X – An interest in the topic area.
· – A lack of interest in the topic area.
›› – An increasing interest in the topic area.
flfl – A decreasing interest in the topic area.
178 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184
studies that cover overlapping periods. Other possible, but
unverifiable, reasons for differences in identified themes of
significance might include variation between sample
groups, differences in sampling method and differences in
the ways that themes were identified.
Indeed, different opinions about the nature of project
management abound in the literature. For instance, Urli
and Urli [15, p. 40] identified organisational change as of
growing interest to project management, while Stretton
noted that the literature ‘‘. . .has surprisingly little material
on organisational change processes, and certainly no uni-
versally accepted guidelines for undertaking organisational
changes as projects’’ [19, p. 1]. These contradictory obser-
vations were both published in 2000.
Urli and Urli [15, p. 35] also identified Operations
Research as the main theme in project management. How-
ever their observations about the significance of Operations
Research are thrown into doubt as none of the other six
mentions Operations Research. Furthermore, a search for
ÔOperations ResearchÕ or ÔOperational ResearchÕ in elec-
tronic copies of the International Journal of Project Man-
agement reveals only three references to either of these
terms [20–22]. A possible explanation of Urli and UrliÕs
[15] claim concerning the significance of Operations
Research to project management involves links between
project management, Systems Engineering and Systems
Analysis [23] and the systems field in general [24]. When
read in the light of an observation by Daniel that: ‘‘Systems
engineering or systems analysis . . .is now regarded as indis-
tinguishable in practice from operational research’’ [21, p.
79], links identified by Urli and Urli [15] between project
management and Operations Research become apparent.
Comparison of the seven studies does, however, reveal
some topics that are consistently regarded as significant.
Topics that at least two studies identify as significant
include: context/environment; information management;
leadership; monitoring and controlling; performance; plan-
ning; procurement; project organisation; quality; risk; and
scheduling.
As is implied by the variation in the results of these dif-
ferent studies, the trends in the field of project management
found by a study is partially dependant on the way
researchers look for those trends. Different research meth-
odologies are like different lenses through which we can see
the world, no one of which gives an exclusive view of the
truth. Rather, an idea of the objective truth can be devel-
oped by triangulating the results of different studies, con-
ducted by different researchers. In the remainder of this
paper, we uncover more recent trends, then by building
upon the work of previous authors, we provide a synthesis
of trends in project management between 1983 and 2003.
4. Research methodology
This paper examines trends in the project management
literature using Keyword Analysis, a technique developed
in the field of Corpus Linguistics, a branch of Applied Lin-
guistics focusing on the computational analysis of corpora.
Keyword Analysis identifies keywords in texts by compar-
ing a subject corpus to a larger normative corpus, which
acts as a base line for the study. Using this method multiple
separate corpora can be compared to a single normative
corpus [25, p. 1]. Different lists of keyword created can then
be created, and can act as the basis for comparison of the
subject corpora.
In this study, four subject corpora were used to create
keyword lists, each one being representative of a five year
portion of either IJPM or PMJ. Subject corpora were com-
posed of the titles and abstracts of articles appearing in the
different journals. Book reviews were excluded from this
compilation. Abstracts and titles of journal articles are gen-
erally highly indicative of the content of articles. By con-
trast, it was found that using the full text of articles
introduced the possibility of repetitiously worded articles
distorting results. Furthermore, abstracts tend to be of a
similar length and as such there is less likelihood of the
results being skewed due to an entry being of exceptional
length.
Five year periods were chosen as the basis of this study
so as to align more clearly with previous studies. Betts and
Lansley [3], Themistocleous and Wearne [5] and Urli and
Urli [15] analyse trend data in five year time periods. Five
year periods also allowed for the accumulation of sufficient
data to indicate a trend.
A variety of Keyword Analysis techniques can be iden-
tified in the Corpus Linguistics literature: v2; log-likeli-
hood; t-test; the Mutual Information (MI) statistic; and
the Mann–Whitney test. Of these, the t-test was discounted
as it requires samples of the same size. This constraint
could not be met by the samples of journal content, as
the length of journals varies from issue to issue and year
to year. The t-test also requires normal distribution of
words, ‘‘. . .which is not in general the case for word
counts’’ [26, p. 104]. MI was discounted as it overemphas-
ises rare terms [26, p. 105], which would be common in an
industry such as project management, which has developed
a specialised vocabulary. The Mann–Whitney test was not
used as it ignores word frequencies [25, p. 2], which are use-
ful in understanding the role that words play in a text.
The log-likelihood and v2 tests were both identified as
appropriate tests for identifying keywords in this study.
These tests are similar, in that the v2 and log-likelihood
tests are two statistics on the same ‘‘. . .continuum defined
by the power-divergence family of statistics’’ [25, p. 2].
Both of these tests can be used to produce lists of words
that are considered to be keywords, based on the analysis
of the relative frequencies of words. These tests also pro-
duce an index which can be used to indicate how key par-
ticular words are to a text. Results in this study were
generated using both methods. The v2 test was finally cho-
sen due to greater correspondence of results with a natural
language understanding of keyness in a text.
The v2 algorithm identifies keywords based on the com-
parison of the relative frequencies of words in a subject and
 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184
normative corpus. The normative corpus provides a base-
line frequency for word use. Words in the subject corpus
identified as unusually frequent are tagged as potential key-
words. This approach tends to emphasise words not com-
mon in general English, such as acronyms and words
which could be considered to be project management jar-
gon. WordSmith Tools [27,28], an integrated suite of pro-
grams for analysing how words behave in texts, was
chosen as the text analysis software for this study.
The normative corpus chosen in this study was the Brit-
ish National Corpus (BNC), a 100 million word collection
of samples of written and spoken English, from a wide
variety of sources, designed to be representative of current
British English [29]. As the normative corpus is in English,
this study is limited to analysing project management texts
10000
9000
No. of words in samples
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
1994
179
written in English. It is recognised that using a British cor-
pus might have introduced some bias into the analysis of
the texts, as IJPM is published in the UK. However, as
no truly international corpus of written English existed at
the time of writing, this bias was unavoidable.
The change in the number of articles in IJPM and PMJ
over the sample period is represented in Fig. 1. The number
of words in each of the sample years is represented in
Fig. 2. From these, it can be seen that both the number
of articles and the sample size vary significantly over the
sample period. The v2 algorithm was also chosen because
results generated using this algorithm are not affected by
variations in sample size.
For each of the four five year subject corpora, the v2
algorithm identified in excess of 500 keywords. However,
Fig. 1. Number of articles by year.
IJPM
PMJ
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Year
Fig. 2. Number of words in sample by year.
180 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184

due to the limitations of the v2 algorithm, and its tendency Table 2

to overestimate the keyness of terms with a frequency of Topics and categories of topics (based on [31, p. 4])
five or less [25, p. 2] [30, p. 25], some low frequency key- Category of topic Topic
words were discarded. Lists of the top 200 keywords for Cost Management  Cost Management
each subject corpora were used as the basis of analysis. Cross Unit Outcomes  Estimating
Identified keywords were analysed for correspondence  Integration Management
with, or indication of attention paid within a corpus to,  Project Context/Environment
one of 48 project management topics and 18 categories of  Project Life Cycle/Phasing
topics (see Table 2). These categories and topics were iden- Finalisation  Project Closeout/Finalisation
tified in association with the development of global perfor-  Testing, Commission, Handover and
mance based standards for project management personnel. Acceptance
Their development is documented elsewhere [31, p. 4], and Interpersonal  Conflict Management
is based on topic lists used by previous analyses [5,6] of  Leadership
project management trends.  Negotiation
 Problem Solving
However, the v2 algorithm is a statistical technique, and  Teamwork
only produces a list of words which might be of significance
Legal Issues  Legal Issues
in a text. Each of the top 200 keywords, for each of the sub-
 Safety, Health and Environment
ject corpora, once identified, were examined for the way
they were used in the titles and abstracts of articles, in Marketing  Marketing
order to ascertain whether the term was being used in a Product Functionality  Configuration Management
way which indicated attention paid to one of these 48 top-  Design Management
 Requirements Management
ics or 18 categories of topics. Some of the identified key-
 Technology Management
words could either be rejected or included immediately,  Value Management
but the vast majority required examination of their textual
Program Management  Program Management
context.
This analysis has made use of two forms of triangulation Project Evaluation  Organisational Learning
in generating results. Creation and interpretation of results and Improvement  Performance Management
 Project Evaluation and Review
has involved both quantitative and qualitative processes:
quantitative methods in the generation of keywords; qual- Project Planning and  Change Control
Control  Project Monitoring and Control
itative methods in the assessment of the way that they
 Project Planning
words were used in the text. Furthermore, triangulation
of results involved two researchers independently creating Project Start-up  Goals, Objectives and Strategies
 Project Initiation/Start-up
results, before results were compared. It was found that  Success (Criteria and Factors)
very little reconciliation was needed between the indepen-
Quality Management  Quality Management
dently generated results.
Relationship Management  Benefits Management
5. Results  Document Management
 Information and Communication
Management
Results have been analysed both in terms of the 48 indi-  Reporting
vidual project management topics and at the level of the 18  Team Building and Development
categories of topics. Results for the 10 year period of this Resource Management  Personnel/Human Resource
study are depicted in Fig. 4. The number of bars within a Management
particular category indicates the number of different key-  Procurement
words found to indicate attention paid to this aspect of  Project Organisation
 Resource Management
project management. The height of the bars indicates the
ranked keyness of the individual keywords. Risk Management  Risk Management
Results indicate an increase in the keyness of some top- Scope Management  Scope Management
ics over the sample period. Project Evaluation and
Strategic Alignment  Business Case
Improvement shows a slight increase in the attention paid  Financial Management
to this topic over the time period in both journals. Interest  Project Appraisal
in Strategic Alignment is also strong in IJPM and shows an  Strategic Alignment
increase in PMJ. An increase of interest is also evident in Time Management  Time Management
Cross Unit Outcomes, however there is considerable varia-
tion in how this interest is expressed at the topic level. On
the other hand, attention paid to Quality Management and Other results could not be used to show a general ten-
Interpersonal Issues decreases in both journals, showing a dency within the field, but instead indicated a difference
change in the trends identified in other studies [15,18]. in focus between IJPM and PMJ. For instance, Project
 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184
Planning and Control decreases in interest in IJPM, while
increasing in focus in PMJ. Relationship Management,
while remaining strong in both journals, demonstrates the
same tendency. Project Start-up and Time Management,
conversely, increase in keyness in IJPM, while decreasing
in keyness in PMJ over the study period.
An interesting tendency can be seen in the results for
both Resource and Risk Management. In both cases, in
both journals, the number of keywords identified as indi-
cating these categories decreases in the second period.
However, in the second period the ranked keyness of the
remaining terms increases. This could be taken to indicate
stable interest in these topics and a standardisation of the
terms used.
No keywords were found within the top 200 to indicate
attention paid to Marketing. Only a low level of interest
could be seen in Legal Issues, Finalisation and Scope Man-
agement. The lack of interest in Scope can be seen as a con-
Fig. 3. Topic coverage summary: 1994–2003.
181
tinuation of the trend uncovered a previous study [16]. The
little attention paid to Finalisation in the first period van-
ishes in the second period. A lack of interest in Finalisation
found in this research confirms the trend of low interest
indicated by previous studies [5,6].
Other tendencies are apparent at the level of the 48 pro-
ject management topics, which are not apparent in the 18
categories of topic. For instance, increased to attention
paid to Estimating, Organisational Learning and Project
Context/Environment increases in both journals.
Decreases in interest in Controlling, Conflict Management,
Problem Solving and Stakeholder/Relationship Manage-
ment can be seen in both journals. Although interest in
Procurement in IJPM remains strong, attention paid to this
topic drops dramatically in PMJ.
Some topics show opposite trends between the journals.
Attention paid to integration increases in IJPM, but
decreases in PMJ. Project Organisation becomes less key
182 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184

in IJPM, but becomes more key within PMJ. Keywords
indicating a focus on the Project Life Cycle are common
within IJPM, but comparatively rare within PMJ.
Other keywords could not be taken as directly indicating
an interest in one of the 48 project management topics, but
did stand out in the keyword lists. For instance, it is clear
that construction and engineering continue to dominate the
literature, with keywords indicating both of these industries
giving consistently high results in both journals and in both
time periods. Defence and software both appeared in three
of four time periods. Defence shows a slight decline in
interest, while software shows a slight increase in interest
over the study period.
Interest in reengineering projects is strong during the
first sample period in both journals. IJPM even provided
a Business Process Reengineering and Beyond special issue
in 1996. However, attention to reengineering vanishes in
the second period, with none of the top 200 keywords
indicating interest in this kind of project. Issues of part-
nering also stand out, although the results are inconclu-
sive. In PMJ, issues of partnering stand out as a top
keyword between 1994 and 1998, but do not appear as a
keyword between 1999 and 2003. Inverse results were
found in IJPM, which demonstrated no interest in part-
nering in the first period and strong interest in the second
period.

Period this study covers

83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03
Cost
Cross unit
outcomes

Finalisation
Interpersonal

Legal issues

Marketing
Product
functionality

Program management
Project evaluation
and improvement
Project planning
and control
Project
start-up

Quality
management

Relationship
management
Resource
management
Risk
management
Scope management
Strategic
alignment

Time
management

Figure key: Topic is reported as of significance

Topic is reported as not significant
Topic is reported as increasing in significance
Topic is reported as decreasing in significance

Fig. 4. Synthesis of project management trends: 1983–2003.

 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184
The influence of Systems Dynamics can also be seen on
articles in IJPM, with keywords in both time periods. It
appears that the influence of complex systems thinking
has increased in IJPM, with indicative keywords such as
ÔcomplexityÕ and ÔemergentÕ making a strong appearance
between 1999 and 2003.
An understanding of which research methodologies are
favoured within the project management literature can also
be gleaned from this study. Three of the four sample peri-
ods produced keywords indicating a focus on the use of
surveys or questionnaires and production or use of heuris-
tics. Use of heuristics was particularly pronounced in PMJ.
These results indicate a general tendency within the project
management literature to focus on the use of surveys to
produce heuristics for practice.
6. Synthesis with previous studies
As can be seen in Table 1, previous studies [3,5,6,15–18]
of trends in project management have found results which
vary, and are even directly contradictory, over the same time
period. The majority of these studies use different research
methods, both to each other and to that used in this research.
However, the differences in approach can be a strength if the
different results can be brought together under a common
framework (see Fig. 4), allowing for broader tendencies to
be seen than are apparent in any one study.
The different areas of significance identified by the other
studies (the left column in Table 1) have been mapped onto
18 categories of topics used in this study. Results for all
eight studies, including this one, have then been combined.
The same four kinds of trends in Fig. 3 are presented
Fig. 4: significance; lack of significance; increase; or
decrease in significance. Information from each of the eight
studies have been included in this figure, where the study
clearly indicated one of these four kinds of trend, in one
of the 18 categories.
In some cases, contradictions are apparent, where con-
trary results have been found in different studies. Between
1990 and 1999, for example, different studies have found
that aspects of the category Product Functionality are of
significance and not of significance. In such a case, it is
unclear whether a clear trend exists, with results in the
studies in question possibly being dependant upon the par-
ticular research methods used.
In other cases, cross over between studies has been
found, where supporting information for a trend has been
found. For instance, evidence in the different studies has
been found to demonstrate an increase in the significance
of the category of Project Evaluation and Improvement
from 1983 to 2003, without any studies indicating a differ-
ent kind of trend over this period. Risk and Cost have also
shown consistent trends, being of significance and increas-
ing in significance, respectively, although these trends do
not extent over the whole period.
Relationship Management is consistently reported as
either being of significance or increasing significant, while
183
the evidence suggests that Resource Management and
Time Management are both also central to the field. Stra-
tegic Alignment has been found by other studies to be of
significance, while this study found it to be increasing in
significance. This suggests that Strategic Alignment could
form an progressively dominant aspect of the field. By con-
trast, Finalisation, Scope Management and Marketing
have either been ignored by previous studies or found to
not be of significance in the PM literature.
Interesting trends can also be seen in relation to Quality
Management and Interpersonal issues. Although both of
these topics have been found by previous studies to be of
significance, and increasingly so, this study found a
decrease in their significance. As mentioned earlier, fads
ebb and flow [13]. Results from the synthesis of these stud-
ies suggests that although these topics may be important in
managing projects well, the significance that is placed on
these topics may have peaked.
7. Conclusion
This paper has examined trends in the literature on pro-
ject management. Seven previous studies of trends in pro-
ject management have been examined, and the results
contained in these studies brought under a single consistent
framework. More recent trends (1994–2003) in the litera-
ture on project management have then been identified
using Keyword Analysis, a method of computational anal-
ysis from the field of Corpus Linguistics.
The clearest trends uncovered by this study include a
clear reduction in focus on Interpersonal Issues and Qual-
ity Management in the project management literature over
the last 10 years, while an increase in the significance of
Project Evaluation and Improvement can be seen over
the same period. Differences are also apparent in the foci
of the International Journal of Project Management and
the Project Management Journal focus upon. Many topic
areas were found that increased in keyness in one journal,
while decreasing in the other journal.
More significant results were found when results from
this study were then compared with previous studiesÕ
results, providing a synthesis of trends in the field. Com-
parison of results from multiple studies has provided the
opportunity for triangulation, and has mitigated against
errors inherent in relying on a single research method.
Synthesis of results revealed that Relationship Manage-
ment, Resource Management, Time Management, Cost
Management and Risk Management all displayed consistent
significance throughout the study period. However, by con-
trast, Finalisation, Scope and Marketing tend to either be
ignored by writers on project management or identified as
not being of significance. Project Evaluation and Improve-
ment and Strategic Alignment are both increasing in their
significance to the field. Evidence also suggests that the sig-
nificance of Quality Management and Interpersonal Issues
has peaked, and that while these issues have previously been
interest to writers in the field, this interest is waning.
184 L. Crawford et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 175–184
References
[1] Crawford LH. Project management standards: The Value of Stan-
dards (DBA thesis) Henley-on-Thames: Henley Management Col-
lege/Brunel University, 2001.
[2] Evaristo R, van Fenema PC. A typology of project management:
emergence and evolution of new forms. Int J Project Manage
1999;17(5):275–81.
[3] Betts M, Lansley P. International Journal of Project Management: a
review of the first ten years. Int J Project Manage 1995;13(4):207–17.
[4] Pinto JK, Slevin DP. Critical success factors across the project life
cycle. Project Manage J 1988;19(3):68–75.
[5] Themistocleous G, Wearne SH. Project management topic coverage
in journals. Int J Project Manage 2000;18(1):7–11.
[6] Zobel AM, Wearne SH. Project management topic coverage in recent
conferences. Project Manage J 2000;31(2):32–7.
[7] White D, Fortune J. Current practice in project management – an
empirical study. Int J Project Manage 2002;20(1):1–11.
[8] PMI. A guide to the project management body of knowledge.
Pennsylvania, USA: PMI; 2000.
[9] Stretton A. A short history of project management: part one: the
1950s and 60s. Aust Project Manager 1994;14(1):36–7.
[10] Shenhar A. Project Management Theory: The road to better practice.
In: Project Management Institute 27th Annual Seminar/Symposium
1996.
[11] Stretton A. A short history of project management: part two: the
1970s. Aust Project Manager 1994;14(2):48.
[12] Stretton A. A short history of project management: part three: the
1980s. Aust Project Manager 1994;14(3):65–7.
[13] Pascale R. Managing on the edge. London: Penguin; 1990.
[14] Clarke T, Clegg S. Changing paradigms: The transformation of
management knowledge for the 21st century. London: Harper
Collins; 1998.
[15] Urli B, Urli D. Project management in North America, stability of the
concepts. Project Manage J 2000;31(3):33–43.
[16] Morris PWG, Patel MB, Wearne SH. Research into revising the APM
project management body of knowledge. Int J Project Manage
2000;18(3):155–64.
[17] Morris PWG. Researching the unanswered questions of project
management. 2000. Available online at: http://www.indeco.co.uk/
filestore/ResearchingtheUnansweredQuestionsofProjectManagement.
pdf, Accessed: 1/9/2005.
[18] Kloppenborg TJ, Opfer WA. Forty years of project management
research: Trends, interpretations, and predictions. In: PMI Research
Conference. PMI, 2000. p. 41–59.
[19] Stretton A. An investigation of connections between organisational
change and project management. In: Crawford L, Clarke CFE,
editors. IRNOP IV Conference – Paradoxes of Project Collabora-
tion in the Global Economy: Interdependence, Complexity and
Ambiguity, Sydney. Australia: University of Technology, Sydney;
2000.
[20] Nurminen T. Finnish general contracting in the USSR. Int J Project
Manage 1985;3(3):163–8.
[21] Daniel DW. Hard problems in a soft world. Int J Project Manage
1990;8(2):79–83.
[22] Tavares L, Ferreira J, Coelho J. A comparative morphologic analysis
of benchmark sets of project networks. Int J Project Manage
2002;20(6):475–85.
[23] Yeo KT. Systems thinking and project management – time to reunite.
Int J Project Manage 1993;11(2):111–7.
[24] Crawford L, England, D. Mapping the links between project
management and systems. In: Proceedings of IRNOP, vol. 6, Turku,
Finland, 2004.
[25] Rayson P, Garside R. Comparing corpora using frequency profiling.
In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Comparing Corpora, held in
conjunction with the 38th annual meeting of the Association for
Computational Linguistics (ACL 2000), 2000. p. 1–6.
[26] Kilgarriff A. Comparing corpora. Int J Corpus Linguist
2001;6(1):97–133.
[27] Scott M. PC analysis of key words – and key key words. System
1997;25(2):233–45.
[28] Scott M. WordSmith Tools Version 4. Oxford: Oxford University
Press; 2004.
[29] Oxford University Computing Services. British National Corpus.
Oxford University Computing Services; 2002.
[30] Ashen F. Statistics for linguistics. Massachusetts, USA: Newbury
House; 1978.
[31] Crawford L. Global body of project management knowledge and
standards. In: Pinto J, Morris G, editors. The Wiley guide to
managing projects. New York: Wiley; 2004. p. 1150–96.