Science and Project Management

This post was originally published in August of 2016 on another platform:

The latest book I just started reading is The Meaning of Science; An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science by Tim Lewens. When I say I just started reading it, that's what I mean. I'm only a handful of pages into it. So far it's interesting.
 
This morning I came across an article in the June/July 2016 issue of PM Journal. The author of Philosophy of Project Management: Lessons From the Philosophy of Science attempts an interesting comparison between the disciplines of science and project management. His name is J. Davidson Frame and he frames (cough cough) scientific philosophy into the following areas:

General epistemological issues

• determining how scientists generate, store, interpret, and distribute knowledge
  

General ontological issues

• identifying whether the theories being pursued address real phenomena
  

Demarcation

• defining the boundaries of scientific effort
  

Scientific explanation

• defining approaches scientists use to explain phenomena
  

Scientific realism versus antirealism

• understanding the role of observable versus unobservable entities in explaining phenomena
  

Normal science versus scientific revolutions

• experiencing paradigm shifts that lead to scientific revolutions
  

Theory ladenness

• understanding the impossibility of scientists being fully objective
  

Under determination

• recognizing that a phenomenon can be explained by multiple explanations
  

Based on this framework the author gives a series of "philosophy of science lessons for philosophy of project management." Here's his project management version of the list:

Demarcate the discipline

• decide what is a part of project management and what is apart from project management, the same could be said for individual projects
  

Avoid excessive abstraction

• focus on the real concrete world (on time, on budget, etc.), practicality is more important than abstract generalities
  

Be open to cross-disciplinary perspectives

• this section is all about team work
  

Encourage spirited debate on profound issues of importance to the advancement of the discipline

• this discussion is less practical and more about generalizing project management ideas, but in the early stages of a project spirited debate can be very helpful as well as when talking about the discipline as a whole
  

 
Here is the full article:

science_and_pm.pdf