Project Management Practices as a Subject of Research for CSCW

Abstract

The 'project' is a prevalent form for organising endeavours of construction, innovation, IT development and organisational change. 'Projects' involve coordination and cooperation between colocated and distributed actors, and are relevant for CSCW (computer supported cooperative work) research as a particular kind of cooperative work. A survey of CSCW publications only identified 26 papers that explicitly address project management (PM), of which most primarily focus on IT development. We argue that CSCW's conceptual and methodological tools can make significant contributions to PM research, practice and its computational support. We point to four issues of relevance for future CSCW research on projects: continue to sophisticate the empirical and conceptual understanding of projects, broaden research beyond IT projects into other domains, develop agile approaches beyond IT development and focus on computational support for project work and management. In all, we argue that CSCW can advance our understanding of project work and management and the design of adequate computational support.