Page 79 - Global Project Management Handbook

THE FUTURE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT 3-13

of the field, still in development, as correlated with the evolution of the number of papers
(see Table 3.1), around new concepts shows more focus around diversified themes, indi-
cating perhaps more maturity with possibly a paradigm shift.

Strategic Diagram Analysis
After an overview on the first findings, it is appropriate to study the strategic diagrams gen-
erated and their evolution. A wealth of information emerges from these maps, but some-
times it is difficult to translate. We are using a combination of qualitative and quantitative
approaches in analyzing them. The four strategic diagrams are presented in Fig. 3.5.
Note: In the following development, we refer to the names of clusters; the names
(in parentheses) are the main content of the clusters mentioned. They give sense to the
clusters.
We can note the general structure of the field and its evolution by period.

Quadrant 1: “Strategic Heart” of the Field. Here we find the main themes. Clusters
are very close to each other in term of keywords (high density, strong association).
From a 1985–1991 period focused on building (construction, engineering, contacting)
and project type, we then moved to a period (1992–1996) where the strategic issues
were cost, information, engineering, development (team, behavior, change, organization,
education), and system (companies, business, industry, management, project). Then
we moved to a period (1997–2001) where the main themes were power (investment,
finance, bank), computer, budget, manager (learning, education, training), building,
service (sharing, collaborating, user), end (coordination, implementation, communica-
tion), technology (team, quality, performance), and company (development, system,
management, project, business, type, industry, need). Finally, we move to the
2002–2004 period, where the “strategic heart” of the field is consists of training (edu-
cation, learning knowledge, leader, staff, mentoring coaching, organization), financial
(investment, bank, partner), director (executive, CEO), cost (economic, contract,
developing, contracting, general, construction, building, engineering, design), infor-
mation, and business (company, management, need, type, industry, project). As a first
remark, note that the cluster business is very consistent (made up of similar concepts
such as company, management, need, type, industry, and project) through the various

time periods, coming from type in 1985–1991, system in 1992–1996, and then compa-
ny in 1997–2001. Furthermore, it is of interest to note that the clusters manager
(1997–2001) and training (2002–2004), consisting of concepts such as education,
learning knowledge, leader, staff, mentoring coaching, and organization, are gaining
in density and centrality, becoming really hot topics within the field.

Quadrant 3. We find specialized field themes here, either internal themes constitut-
ing an autonomous subfield or external themes “imported” from other fields or disci-
plines and having new development in the studied field. During the period 1985–1991,
the theme is written (content, item, express, permission). Then in 1992–1996 the
theme is method (Pert, CPM, Gantt, critical path, WBS, estimating, standard, esti-
mate), showing the focus of most of the authors at that time. Then in 1997–2001 sev-
eral themes emerged: acquisition (DOD, earned value, IPT, performance), member
(PMI, IPMA, APM, committee, body of knowledge), institute (written, content,
express, permission, item), component (quality assurance, Juran, inspection, defect),
request (RFP, law, legal), infrastructure, and managing (change, impact, value, assess-
ment, risk, environmental, mitigation, contingency). Then we move in 2002–2004 to