If you Google Scholar the name Peter Morris you will find a host of publications starting in the 1970s and up until today. He has contributed a lot in terms of practical work experiences related to projects (his list of work positions and consultancy experiences provided in the preface is impressive to say the least) and in terms of publications related to the project management theme (his CV just has to be very long if all publications are included). His contributions are especially related to his work as professor of construction and project management at University College London (even though he does not allude too much to his own rigorous research on projects). Relevance for practice is on top of his priorities and he has been devoting more time on activities of the action research type. Initially he was very much into the execution-oriented mode of thinking (who was not?), i.e. fairly laden with prescriptions, but nowadays – in particular with this book – he has taken a position which is slightly different by discussing the task of an academic vis-à-vis activities related to this field.
I will get back to that theme and to what I learned from reading this book later in this review, but initially I instead want to describe what is in this new book. It consists of three parts: the first part is titled “constructing project management” and provides a historical description/analysis of various themes related to developments (in practice and conceptually) from very early days and up till now. The second part has a similar title “deconstructing project management”. It contains a description of the various parts or elements of project management. The discussion is held in a modular style with little or no reference to historical developments. Rather it focuses on the traditional themes in project management, traditional in the sense that they appear in most textbooks. The final part is on “reconstructing project management” where Morris discusses the field conceptually and with a philosophical touch but also with a thrust on how academics can be more useful from a practical point of view. Theory should be useful for practice. Theory related to understanding the role of projects in the world we live in seems less valued than its relevance for practice.
As already mentioned, Part 1 of the book is devoted to what is called the development of the discipline by reconstructing all the various themes you can discern. It covers examples from an ancient world where the word project management was not even invented. But there was practice along the same lines. The author traces the modern development of the field to engineering and military projects and devotes an interesting discussion to how design and completion were divorced in various ways (for instance architects were prohibited by law in the UK to make money on construction work). The resulting specialization gave rise to the need for integration eventually. The work form expanded in the Second World War context even though formal project management was not used in this. The explicit terminology did not appear until the middle of the 1950s and then mainly in the military industry.
It is in this context where the knowledge base for project management was compiled and further developed. Project Management Institute (PMI) took a definite lead in this effort and eventually the first version of the “Project Management Body of Knowledge” (PMBOK Guide) was published. It provided an overview of six knowledge areas – a knowledge base considered to be relevant for project management. One interesting comment is that the original version of PMBOK as well as more recent versions (the most recent version came in 2013) only are supposed to cover what is unique for management of projects. General management knowledge is not to be covered. Morris labels this stance as a less good one taken by PMI since it misses “several essential elements vital” (p. 281) to managing projects. In his view front end activities are crucial and cannot/should not be left out in practical work.
Similar developments of project management thinking also developed in the various associations subsequently formed in other parts of the globe – notably IPMA in Europe, but also in the East.
The first part of the book does not only contain material on knowledge development of the PMI type. The author also alludes to research efforts in the general field of project management labeled academic engagements like “critical theory” and the “Scandinavian School” and he also appears to be a bit critical of efforts made by academics. Possibly this is a result of his fairly low interest in what these engagements stand for. Many of the academics in fact contribute with results in areas where Morris himself finds shortcomings in the traditional project management literature. As can be seen from all efforts related to the Scandinavian School is that it is characterized by heterogeneity. However, one thing that the Scandinavian School does is to investigate the role of the group rather than the Machiavelli manager/leader in focus elsewhere in the project management literature. Other things in focus there are contexts to projects in time and space! To return to the book being reviewed, the first part of this book also includes accounts on practical experiences in a variety of fields – health, defense, ICT to mention a few.
The second part – on deconstruction – devotes space to explain the notion of deconstruction. The intention is to analyze the elements of what is involved in managing projects. Content-wise this part includes a chapter with the title “Control” including an extensive description of conceivable control elements in a project context. The next chapter is on “Organization” covering notions on roles but also on how the organization develops over the project life cycle. Briefly it also covers some themes related to the organization theory literature like virtual organizations and networks. The following chapter has the title “Governance and strategy”. It is very brief and it centers around a favorite theme Morris seems to have – on front end activities. In effect it alludes to one aspect of the notion of “no project is an island” launched by Engwall in 2003. The context is important and most people would probably agree that the front end is a lot more important than the execution part of a project.
After this comes a little unexpectedly a chapter on the definition of a project. The question about “what is a project” is as old as the notion of project management, but in this case that classical question is not at the fore. Rather, ideas on project requirements, innovation and relations to technology are put forward. The rest of this second part of the book is about commercial aspects of projects, including contract issues. Then comes a chapter on value and risks. There is also a long chapter on people with traditional references to things like leadership, teams, communications, etc. The final chapter of the second part is about the institutional context. In this case the context of the individual project or program is described in terms of project management office, standards, maturity and project reviews among other things.
The final part – on reconstructing – has an interesting subtitle: “Its futures reconstructed”. In this part the author introduces three “new perspectives”: context, sponsor value and societal needs. With this part the realm of project management is widened a lot as compared to classical handbooks on what is involved. The fundamental statement in this part is that project management is a discipline as well as a knowledge domain. The third part implies widening the traditional concerns students of project management has. It starts out with a chapter on project management knowledge alluding to questions on ontology, epistemology, methodology, teleology, etc. In a sense it contributes a framework for how one can understand the discipline/domain. The next chapter is about managing context, highly relevant to project management since managing context is an indirect way to manage the project/program. The author divides his discussion into independent and dependent variables and alludes to constraints in the context. Building sponsor value is treated next as the “ethos”. Another way of labeling this might have been to talk about the “raison d'être” of the endeavor since this is of relevance for governance and stakeholders. The final chapter of this part has the title “the age of relevance”. In this chapter, the author delves into what lies ahead for mankind (“overpopulation” for instance) and how project management can be of help. The very last chapter of the book contains an enumeration of the points that the author regards as conclusions for the discipline. The book also contains two appendices: an overview of Critical success factor studies (a classical theme in traditional project management literature) and one text on megaprojects, where major efforts are presented including results.
What is there to say about the book as a whole from a reviewer perspective? First of all I was very impressed with the multitude of examples from industry as well as his broad approach to research in providing reflections in the book. It seems that the author has really tried to summarize most of his experiences over his entire life time and the publication as a whole is also filled with his very interesting personal reflections on relevant matters. The text gives the reader a feeling that this book contains the academic life “testament” of the author. Completeness is at fore and the details in the references/endnotes are impressive.
On the other hand some isolated statements and details in the book are a bit controversial or incorrect. A footnote on page 246 states that “Organization theory is a sub-area within sociology”. This is certainly true, but it makes the reader believe that it is confined to sociology and that is not correct. A similar and in fact untrue statement on page 69 says that “the Scandinavian School […] argued that projects […] are less goal-oriented than permanent organizations”. It is almost the other way around. The temporary organization view on projects is that they have a narrow focus on one and only one task to be fulfilled! A so-called permanent organization can never have such a narrow and dominating focus! At that the reader might experience difficulties in understanding differences between words and concepts introduced: what is a “supra project” (p. 18) as compared with a “megaproject” (p. 306)?
Besides all the interesting experiences and stories the author provides for the reader he also has some statements on the role of research. He repeatedly comes back to the notion that research should devote energy to come up with advice for practice. Academics should be useful for practice. However, he has an important statement hidden within parentheses already in page 2. It reads: “[…] matters are made worse if educational programs are then accredited against the very standards which their researchers and teacher should be critiquing”. My reading of this is that research should be involved in practical work but not dependent on practitioners. Researchers should be free! This is in line with the classical role of universities – to be the salt of the earth!
The book is most certainly good reading (even though details sometimes are tiring) in the sense that it makes the reader reflect on the text and comparing the text with the readers own viewpoints. Personally, I learned a lot from reading the book. The point made explicit by Morris that PMBOK only is supposed to cover what is unique to project management (leaving out essential elements from general management) was most certainly an eye-opener. Much of the most recent academic discussions have in fact been devoted to the relations between organization theory and project management. How can project management incorporate research results from organization studies and how can project research be useful for organizational theory? Personally, I would like to see another book from Morris with the tentative title “Managing Projects” where all relevant issues (including front end) are included. This is a formidable challenge for the future including an effort to justify the role of academics in this area of practice and research! Anyway, the author has to be congratulated to the outcome of his efforts with this book.
