Scope of the Research

Scope

This research study project covers research published in the English language in the period from 1960 through 1999. A search of the current literature, utilizing automated and manual reference library capabilities at Xavier University and the United States (US) Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton, Ohio, and numerous Internet-based literature and research databases, was conducted utilizing a PMI-approved keyword search list. From the material generated by these searches, a refined annotated bibliography was developed by applying the "Project Management Research Definition" jointly developed by the Xavier/TDG Project Team and the PMI Research Conference 2000 Project Team.

Among the materials searched in the project were scholarly periodicals and journals, conference proceedings, research papers, theses, and dissertations. Research sponsored or published by the US Department of Defense (DoD), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), other US government agencies, and the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) were also included where the material was unclassified and available to the general public. Additionally, the Xavier/TDG Project Team conducted a one-day workshop with fourteen professors and over fifty project management practitioners to assist in identifying and interpreting trends and areas for future research.

Limitations

Textbooks were specifically excluded from the material reviewed. This was due to the volume of texts published and because the Xavier/TDG Project Team and the PMI Research Conference 2000 Project Team felt that most research was covered in the other literature sources. Therefore, it is felt that this research project has captured approximately 85 percent of all research material published in English since 1960 that met the project research definition. Limitations of time and financial resources prohibited further study into the subject at this time, although we propose a plan to continue and expand the study in the future. (See Recommended Follow-On Work section.)

Assumptions and Research Citation Selection Criteria

The research team developed a list of assumptions and selection criteria during the project that relate to the selection criteria of a specific research citation. These assumptions and research citation selection criteria appear in Table 1.

• If a citation measures project success only by generalizations and lessons learned were not explicitly mentioned, they have been excluded.

• Only citations including real-life case studies have been included.

• If the citation mentions some kind of new technique being examined, it has been included.

• Citations relating to the trends in project management have been included only if they refer to other research citations or are based on substantial data. They have been excluded if they state only the authors' point of view without substantial data to support it.

• Citations based on the PMBOK Guide or any other citation, book, paper, or published work which apply the concepts used in PMBOK Guide or another citation have been excluded unless the lessons learned were specified or the data was in the form of testimonials from clients, etc., as in a real-life case study.

• Citations based on surveys of practitioners, experts, or people involved in project management have been included. However, citations that have only a marketing flavor have been excluded.

• Citations based on models (either ones already in use or created by the author) have been included, if they otherwise satisfied the research definition.

• Citations based upon the experiences of authors have been excluded unless they have resulted in the invention of a new concept or technique.

• Citations based on empirical data, even if only part of the work was data based, have been included.

• Citations that were very technical in nature, but not dealing with the management of projects directly, have been excluded.

• Citations on book reviews, industry reviews, etc., have been excluded.

• Citations that relate a concept from any field to project management have been included.

• Citations have been retained or deleted only on the basis of the abstracts written. There has been no attempt to locate the full text of citations except in the case of manually researched citations.

• Citations that did not have an abstract at all have been deleted.

• Conference proceedings have been researched separately and if they have appeared as an article in a journal, they have not been retained.

• Books have been specifically excluded from the scope of the study.

Source and Citation Exclusion Assumptions and Criteria

During the course of our study, the research team came across several periodicals wherein citations were very technical in nature and not within the scope of our research. Hence, such journals and similarly identified citations have been deleted directly, without review, if they satisfy any of the conditions enumerated in Table 2.

• Citations from computer journals.

• Citations from regional papers or magazines.

• Citations that had keywords such as "Book Reviews", "Software Reviews", "Industry Reviews."

• Citations that relate to only the technical aspects of logistics, quality, and configuration management.

• Citations from newspapers.

• Editorial notes, brief articles, and news reports.

Assumptions Relating to Trends

The following three assumptions were made regarding the identification of trends.

1. Trends have been identified based on a sample of all citations. The words "project management" and the respective knowledge areas have been searched for in the title, keywords, and abstract fields and the resulting sample has been used to identify citations in each knowledge area.

2. Each researcher or workshop facilitator was given a list of thirty-six specific search criteria to provide a common starting point in trend investigation. After that, each researcher was given the liberty to identify trends in their own fashion. Therefore, no consistency in trend identification between knowledge areas can be implied.

3. The verification of trends is based upon the experiences of each Project Management Professional (PMP ) participant in the workshop and those of the researchers and workshop facilitators. The validity of these has been ascertained solely upon their inputs and no statistical inference can be derived from this information.