Would the real project management language please stand up?

Abstract

The bodies of knowledge that serve project management as a practice and academic discipline provide a potentially useful organizational resource. However, coordinating bodies of knowledge and keeping pace with changing concepts create a challenge. Overall, many believe that we have a generally accepted body of knowledge for use in managing projects. However, practitioners filter and critically interpret information that in turn shapes their perceptions and generates knowledge to either support or challenge what seems to be “true” from book learning or practical experience. This paper purposely questions whether project-based terminology and definitions are actually as widely accepted as believed. The scope limits the presentation to a summary of two exploratory pieces of scholarly work. The initial literature review from the first source [C. Delisle, Success and communication in virtual project teams, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Dept. of Civil Engineering. Project Management Specialization, The University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, July 2001, pp. 1–442], follow up literature review, web-based search and in-class experiment from the second source [D. Olson, Is a common vocabulary lacking in project management? Final assignment for Information Technology Project Management, Athabasca University, 2001] provide key information on where we are in terms of investigating assumptions around project management language use. The authors conclude that coordination of glossaries and dissemination of information about project management terms and definitions lack coordination on a broad scale.