The nature of project management: A reflection on The Anatomy of Major Projects by Morris and Hough

The purpose of this paper is to review the content and contributions of the book by Morris and Hough entitled The Anatomy of Major Projects: A Study of the Reality of Project Management. The paper explores the major findings and contributions in the book and by so doing, highlights opportunities for future research and links the findings to emerging areas of interest.

The paper presents the main ideas in the book along with a number of important issues to project management theory and the management of large projects, including success, success factors, and the use of case studies to capture the actuality of project work.

The paper demonstrates that Morris and Hough addressed many of the concerns related to major projects and uncovered the implications of researching the success of projects, offering new insights and understanding related to the dynamics of projects and the temporal nature of success (and failure).

The primary implication is to demonstrate the value of revisiting the classic contributions in project management and re‐reading the findings and conclusions.

The author is especially interested in the ideas presented in the book that relate to success and to major projects, as well as with researching the actuality of projects through case studies. Many of the findings and insights remain relevant and would inform today's debates. Previous research has given limited attention to the insights presented in this book published 25 years ago.