Project Management: Reasoning vs Scholarship

Project management has long been treated as a domain of processes, frameworks, and best practices, which we might call the “scholarship” of the discipline. Much of the traditional literature, certifications, and training focus on knowing the rules, terminology, and lifecycle steps. However, this scholarship approach has given us only partial success in project delivery.

By contrast, applying scientific reasoning to project management, such as through data analysis, hypothesis testing, systems thinking, evidence-based decision-making and resource-driven network analysis, allows for predictive insight, adaptive learning, and continuous improvement.

For that, project management must move away from ritual and repetition and toward disciplines such as

📌mathematics,

📌statistics,

📌operations research,

📌behavioural science, and

📌systems science

📌economics

Fields that explain cause-effect relationships and allow for prediction, optimisation, and measurable improvement.

Many project management methods such as Critical Path Method (CPM), Earned Value Management (EVM), Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), Monte Carlo Simulation, Takt, and Scrum now practised as rituals: following prescribed steps, templates, and jargon without deeply questioning their assumptions or validating their effectiveness with evidence.

While scientific reasoning in project management does exist, particularly in project management Academia, it remains largely isolated from the reality of practitioners and PM software developers.

Without building a bridge between research, practice, and tool developers, the discipline risks remaining locked in a scholarship approach: knowing the rules but lacking a true cause-and-effect, evidence-based foundation for decision-making.

Additionally, we need to promote the profession among mathematicians, scientists, and programmers. They are capable of challenging existing practices and helping invent new, evidence-based methods that push project management forward.