Toward a regional ontology for information systems project management

Purpose – The paper aims to paper an overview of a completed doctoral thesis which pursued the development of underlying theory (ontology) to give coherence to research in the information systems (IS) project management space. Design/methodology/approach – As a result of the considerable concern about a lack of underlying theory in project management the author has chosen to investigate the development of underlying theory to serve as a regional ontology to give debates undertaken to improve IS project management coherence. The thesis is a critical interpretive a priori effort. In the pursuit of the goal of developing a regional ontology, the notions, concepts and theories related to existentialism and social construction were investigated. These were investigated because the research literature places considerable emphasis on the need to understand as‐lived project experiences. Findings – One of the significant outcomes that results from this research is the development of a proposed regional ontology. This was achieved by fusing the theories of Heidegger's Dasein, Bourdieu's “Theory of practice” and Maturana and Varela's “Theory of living systems”. The regional ontology is a consolidation of the various concepts defined by these researchers. These theories complement each other to give rise to a relational model of social construction which also has related phenomenological, existential and biological perspectives. Practical implications – The proposed ontology was interpreted using the popular alternatives that have recently emerged alongside the established best practices such as project management body of knowledge. The perspectives of complex, responsive processes of relating, the temporary organisation, agility and organisational becoming were reviewed using the regional ontology. The interpretation process illustrated that the regional ontology is able to provide a more fundamental and coherent context to subsume and delimit these emerging new frames. Originality/value – The thesis also discusses the researcher's view of contemporary project management practice that accords with the regional ontology principles. Through argument and the contemporary context of IS project management practice that was sketched, the principles of the regional ontology are illuminated. Through this process it was possible to claim that established best practice modes of education should not exist in isolation but should instead be situated within a wider analogical context that embraces the values of learning, becoming and innovating.