Further research opportunities in project management

Abstract

The practice of project management has expanded exponentially over the last 15 years. Currently, one-fifth of the world’s economic activity, or U.S. $12 trillion annually, is organized as projects. Meanwhile, the range of business applications that are conducted as projects has also expanded greatly into areas with quite different characteristics. However, these developments have not been matched by a corresponding increase either in research activity, or in the training of academic researchers in project management. This mismatch is creating significant opportunities for academic research in project management to be conducted over the next 10 years. The present work is a successor to a previous article (Hall, J Syst Sci Syst Eng 21(2):129–143, 2012) on recent developments and research opportunities in project management. It updates the information given in the previous article, and identifies an additional research agenda for project management. The 11 new topics presented support a wide range of practical aspects of project management, and require the use of widely varying research methodologies. The conclusions suggest that significant research opportunities remain open within project management.