Linking the Critical Chain Project Management literature

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the state of the art in Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), outlining the CCPM literature to date, in an effort to guide future studies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a bibliometric analysis using Scopus and Web of Science databases. The authors identified the principal journals, articles and authors regarding the research theme, as well as the authors elaborated co-citation and co-occurrence network maps to support the analysis.FindingsThe authors described five co-citation clusters: Fundamentals of Critical Chain, Scheduling, Operations Research, Multi-project and Network, and General Project Management. The most frequently occurring keywords were: “project management,” “critical chain,” “scheduling” and “theory of constraints.” Observing the distribution, the expression “project management” occupied a central position, connecting two other clusters, represented by the keywords “scheduling” and “critical chain.” The authors proposed an evolutive framework for the CCPM state of the art in three stages, according to the most frequent topics identified: Conceptual, Deepening of Applications and Methodological Maturity.Originality/valueThis research adopts a systematic approach based on bibliometric tools, which allows a more rigorous organization of the literature. Co-citation and keyword co-occurrence maps provide evidence of how the main themes in CCPM relate. Besides, the presented historical framework allows new research in CCPM to be directed to the most recent topics of interest that have gaps to be explored.