Mapping Best and Emerging Practices of Project Management

This paper presents results of a study of the connection between Best and Emerging practices of project management. Drawing upon network mapping as an analytical strategy, cases of Best and Emerging practices is analysed and juxtaposed. The case of Best practice is represented by the newly published ISO 21500 standard and the case for the Emerging practices by a deconstruction of the practices of a group of experienced project managers. The network analysis reveals a substantial difference between the Best and Emerging practices. Only two central concepts where shared namely Communication and Planning. Of these two concepts Communication where found to be the most central to both the Emerging and Best practices. The analysis further reveals a soft side of project management that is central in the Emerging practice but absent from the Best practices. Although this soft side might be interpreted as a contextual bias it also represents avenues of further development of Best practices. Finally have the study showed that network mapping is a promising approach for visualizing and interpreting project management practices. Furthermore it represents a tool with much broader areas of application within the study of project management and other phenomena.