Towards a ‘New Project Management’ movement? An international development perspective

Abstract

This article offers an international development perspective on project management. A brief history of the ambitious and controversial role that projects have played over seven decades of development assistance in diverse operational contexts evokes many of the themes vividly articulated by the flourishing contemporary project management literature. They highlight the limitations of conventional project management practices dominated by Management by Objectives principles. Development experience also stresses the promise of adaptable approaches to project design and management in complex and turbulent operating environments and it suggests that projects conceived as experiments can contribute to sound decision making at the higher plane of strategy formulation and policy-making. Beyond confirming the soundness and utility of contemporary project management scholarship, the article puts forward six recommendations grounded in development experience that may be worth consideration by the nascent ‘New Project Management’ movement.