Developing Organizational Project Management Capability: Theory and Practice

Abstract

This paper traces the evolution of conceptions of project management from the use of tools and techniques on standalone projects to the conceptualization of project management as an organizational capability. Working from the premise that project management is a socially constructed field of practice that has developed through the conversations and deliberate efforts of practitioners, principles of discourse analysis are used as a framework for studying the extent to which practice reflects the espoused theories of organizational project management capability development. The actuality of practice is represented by periodic reports over a five-year period by the “owners” of project management in an organization with an expressed commitment to development of organizational project management capability and is analysed with reference to the related espoused theories of practitioners as represented in the project management literature, including bodies of knowledge, standards, and guides.