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vehicles to innovate for the future; (6) interest in the role of leadership and the role of human behavior
in shaping trust and creating a cooperative atmosphere; and (7) interest in seeing projects as complex,
risky and across-the-firm relationships, in an attempt to adopt to uncertainty, manage novel ventures
and deal with special challenges through learning and knowledge integration.
Publications in the field of project management also indicates how the profession advanced over time.
Three significant journals focusing on project management specifically are: (1) The International Journal
of Project Management (IJPM published by Elsevier), (2) The Project Management Journal (PMJ
published by Wiley) and (3) IEEE Transactions of Engineering Management (IEE-TEM published by The
Institute of Electrical and Engineering Management Technology Council) (Turner et al., 2012). In 1987
there were 6 papers in IJPM, in 2007, the number had risen to 366. In 1987, there were 2 papers on
project management in PMJ and in 2007, they were 67, and in IEE-TEM there were no publications in
1987 but 29 in 2007. The diversity of topics had also increased. In IJPM, 45 topics were addressed in
1987, but this number had escalated to 168 topics in 2007. A similar trend can be verified with other
journals (Turner et al., 2012). In times when academics are constantly being pushed to publish, it can be
assumed that this trend has continued.
The International Project Management Association (IPMA) that was established in 1965 had, by the end
of 2013, certified more than 194,000 individuals worldwide (IPMA, 2014). The Project Management
Institute (PMI) was established in 1969 and the British Association for Project Management (APM) in
1972.
Also, an essential part of the development of the project management profession, was the issuing of
Book of Knowledge (BoK) protocols with guidance of how project portfolios and programs to link
strategy and operations. In the UK, the Association for Project Management (APM) has issued the APM
Body of Knowledge that is an up-to-date collection of topics that should be known to PPP practitioners,
academics and experts. Detailed protocols in regard to projects and programs for coordinating strategy,
tactics and operations via projects, programs and portfolios of projects can also be found in the
standards issued by the Project Management Institute (PMI). In particular, the PMI has issued standards
on project portfolios management (The Project Portfolio Standard®), which denotes that a portfolio is a
component collection of programs and projects specifically managed as to achieve strategic objectives
(PMI, 2012). PMI also issues standards on project programs (The Program Management Standard®),
providing guidance to manage multiple projects where project feasibility is the key to answering and
verifying the proposed direction (PMI, 2006:100). Furthermore, PMI issues standards on projects
(Project Management Body of Knowledge - PMBOK®) (the latest version being PMI, 2017). Both APM
and PMI have grown rapidly on all fronts. In 1992, the number of members of APM was 5,000; in 2010,
that number had increased to 17,500. In 2009, the number of members of PMI had risen to more than
300,000 in two decades (Hodgson and Muzio, 2012).
There is little doubt that the project management is an important profession that helps project owners
and organizations of all kind to actualize themselves through successful projects. “Projectification” of
society and the economy is a factuality even though the actual economic impact has hitherto not been
overly well defined.
In Iceland, a similar development with regard to professionalism in PPP management has been taking
place it happened there few years later in time—and there are some interesting anomalies, as discussed
by Ingason, Fridgeirsson & Jonasson (2019).
The key promoter of the discipline of project management is the Project Management Association of
Iceland (VSF). VSF was founded in 1984, with the mission to lead and enhance the development of