1. Organisations are wont to make significant investment in
what are perceived as “capabilities” to improve their
project management outcomes.
Yet research suggests a significant divergence between
formal approaches to project management and the day-to-
day practices of project managers. Drivers for this
divergence have not been clearly identified and addressed
in the literature, particularly using a social/cultural
evolutionary framework which considers how both
practice and theory evolve over time.
This calls for further inquiry into the relationship between
organisations’ pursuit of project management
“methodologies” and resultant practices.
Exploring the divergence of project management practice from its
theoretical representations in Project Management Maturity
Models
Author: Terry McKenna, Supervisors: Dr Jon Whitty, Dr Barrie Todhunter
School of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business and Law
University of Southern Queensland ● Toowoomba ● Queensland ● Australia
Research Motivation
Literature Review
Research Methodology
Literature gaps
Given the nature of the research question, a wide net has
had to be cast to identify relevant literature. A framework
(Fig. 1) was used to identify and navigate the literature
research:
Identification of gaps in the literature were determined by
evaluating whether firm conclusions could be drawn
between how project management is formalised vs. how it
is practiced: .
The proposed research endeavours to add to
understanding relationships between project management
as practiced and its formal representations (e.g.
methodologies, maturity models): looking at how practice
changes over time, and under what influences, in contrast
to (or in unison with) its more formal representations.
Focussing upon practice promotes consideration of a
case study / ethnographic approach:
Research Question
This inquiry is being encapsulated in a Research Question
(RQ):
What are the drivers that create divergent evolutionary
paths between project-management-as-practice and the
various formal project management representations
(such as methodologies, maturity models and bodies of
knowledge)?
More succinctly, the proposed research is framed within
the title:
“Exploring the divergence of project
management practice from its theoretical
representations in Project Management
Maturity Models”.
To date, the literature review on the one hints at the
importance of understanding the relationship; but on the
other does not offer any conclusions which would
discourage further inquiry.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS
The proposed research will strive to increase our
understanding of:
 whether investment in achieving project management
maturity actually influences practice; and
 what factors which influence organisations’ pursuit of
project management actually have a bearing upon how it
is practiced.