J Syst Sci Syst Eng (Jun 2012) 21(2): 129-143 ISSN: 1004-3756 (Paper) 1861-9576 (Online) DOI: 10.1007/s11518-012-5190-5 CN11-2983/N  Systems Engineering Society of China & Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 PROJECT MANAGEMENT: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES Nicholas G. HALL Department of Management Sciences Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, USA hall_33@fisher.osu.edu () Abstract This paper studies the business process known as project management. This process has exhibited a remarkable growth in business interest over the last 15 years, as demonstrated by a 1000% increase in membership in the Project Management Institute since 1996. This growth is largely attributable to the emergence of many new diverse business applications that can be successfully managed as projects. The new applications for project management include IT implementations, research and development, new product and service development, corporate change management, and software development. The characteristics of modern projects are typically very different from those of traditional projects such as construction and engineering, which necessitates the development of new project management techniques. We discuss these recent practical developments. The history of project management methodology is reviewed, from CPM and PERT to the influential modern directions of critical chain project management and agile methods. We identify one important application area for future methodological change as new product and service development. A list of specific research topics within project management is discussed. The conclusions suggest the existence of significant research opportunities within project management. Keywords: Project management, overview, recent practical developments, opportunities for research 1. Introduction A project is conventionally defined as a “temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service” (Project Management Institute 2008). Alternatively, a project can be thought of as a well defined set of tasks that must all be completed in order to meet the project's goals (Klastorin 2004). In a typical project, many tasks are performed concurrently with each other. Another key feature of projects is the existence of precedence relations between the tasks. These relations typically define constraints that require one task to be completed before another starts. Compared to many business processes, project management appears to be particularly difficult, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. From a theoretical perspective, the fundamental planning problem of resource constrained scheduling is highly intractable. From a practical perspective, the two standard objectives in project management are defined to