Reviewing the IJPM for WBS: the search for planning and control

Abstract

The ‘Rethinking Project Management’ research agenda created an environment for reconsidering project management practice.

One suggestion is to focus on project management as an expression of creating value. However, this endgame perspective does not take into account the necessity of all projects to be created through tasks. In the first issue of the International Journal of Project Management (IJPM) published in February 1983, the editor wrote that one purpose of the Journal was to describe “…procedures, concepts and techniques that lead to successful planning and control…”

Thus, one method of responding to the appeal for reconsideration of traditional perspectives is to explore the IJPM related to the agenda set in the 1980s. Work breakdown structure (WBS) is a one “procedure, concept or technique” utilized for project planning and control. Thus the search term WBS was instrumental in this review of IJPM Original Research Articles published between 1983 and 2013.

A simple numerical ranking protocol indicated WBS significance in 140 documents. Although over 70% of articles used the term once or twice, WBS was not the article focus. A comprehensive document analysis found only 19 articles with substantive WBS content. However the review identified 11 research papers in which project management knowledge was expanded through development of more effective use of the WBS to plan and control project processes. Although this review did not find large numbers of WBS related planning and control articles, articles spanning three decades of IJPM indicates continuing WBS relevancy, if not popularity.