Project Management Journal - The Theoretical Research of Project Management
Pros:
Good research studies to base your own situations on.
Cons:
Dry, dry, dry...Want more on the qualitative front.
The Bottom Line:
If you're looking for scholarly type studies on project management, you've found the right journal.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Just about every recognized profession has at least one journal that their peers read and in project management - we're no exception. Although there are a hand full of published magazines on project management, there's only one journal that I know of - PMJ.
PMJ is published 4 times a year by the Project Management Institute. It normally runs 35-40 pages with no advertisements and will contain 5-6 different research studies.
The subject matter of PMJ stays the same (Project Management of course!) however, the themes of research will vary from issue to issue. In one issue, they may choose to focus on risk management, featuring several research-related abstracts, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. In another, the focus may be on executive sponsorship and the link between having it and the success of various types of projects. As you might guess, the emphasis is more so on the quantitative view because like many other areas of scholarly focus, geeks still put more emphasis on numbers than on people :).
Unlike trade magazines, you'll find the reading level expected for PMJ to be quite a bit higher than eighth grade. Aside from a couple of graphs to illustrate statistical analysis associated with the studies, you won't find any pretty pictures.
Despite my disdain for the emphasis on numbers, I do actually get good information from what is published. There are many times that the officers of my company have asked for ways in which we can quantify different aspects of project management. Once you get beyond statistics related to earned value, it's tricky and not so mainstream. Using one of these research studies to create my own model, is helpful in getting the info needed by the "important" people and also allows me to test a theory outside of a laboratory setting. PMJ will include the email contact information for the authors which is extremely helpful when I've wanted to communicate with them about their particular study.
Who contributes to PMJ? Virtually anyone can. There's a set criteria which you can find at PMI's web site that reviews what types of abstracts are accepted for review, the format, etc... Typically, those who have a PMP designation, are heavy researchers, and enjoy publishing, are usually the individuals who contribute to PMJ.
How do you subscribe to this journal? At the present time, you can only receive it if you are a member of PMI. Individual memberships run a little over $150 per year. Hopefully, you have a generous employer that will pick up the cost :).
A great journal? Depends on what you mean by great. While I would like to see a little more diversification between the quantitative and qualitative research studies, I'm quite pleased with the topic focus. The dryness of it all can be quite taxing so be sure to have plenty of caffeine in your system before you sit down to read it cover to cover!
