Some experiential and allied influences on my
perspectives and writings on project management
(A Personal Story)
By Alan Stretton, PhD (Hon)
Sydney, Australia
INTRODUCTION
This article is a broadly chronological outline of some of my personal career experiences and allied influences, and how these have affected my perspectives on project management (PM), and thence the nature and content of some of my more recent articles on this subject, most of which have appeared in this journal.
Some earlier sections of this article include discussions on various disciplines I was involved with relatively early in my career, such as civil engineering, general management, marketing management and organisational strategic planning. I will outline how some of these disciplines influenced my perceptions of, and later writings on, the (then) emerging discipline of project management.
In earlier times, project management was often described as “the accidental profession” – a descriptor which reflected the diverse disciplinary paths that most of my generation took in our journeys towards embracing project management as a distinct discipline. In the modern era, it is still widely acknowledged that the project management discipline draws on, and/or is influenced by, a multitude of practices from other disciplines. However, there tend to be few specific references to such practices in the PM literature. Indeed, many writers have commented that project management continues to be rather inwards looking and self-referential. One of my hopes for this article is that it might help promote greater recognition of many key contributions from a host of other disciplines.
Some of the later sections of this article are concerned with questions that arose out of differences between my experiences in project management and what was being written on the subject; plus, discrepancies I have found within the project management literature itself. For example, some of my writings have been particularly concerned with differences for project management on internal projects in production-based Owner Organisations, versus project management on external customer projects in project-based Supplier Organisations; and on tendencies in the PM literature to focus on the former. This also overlaps with some of my other writings on tendencies in the literature to ignore the key roles of users of project outputs in achieving broader outcomes and realising benefits. These writings ventured some suggestions to help address each of these concerns, which are summarised in this article.
The final section of this article looks at a couple of possible extensions of project management, under the heading of futures for project management.
INITIAL EXPERIENCES IN CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION
I graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) from the University of Tasmania in 1948, and an MA (in mathematics) from Oxford University in 1951. I found that I was not cut out to pursue mathematics as a career. However, I had enjoyed field construction work with Tasmania’s Hydro-Electric Commission before and after my first graduation, so decided to pursue civil engineering in Australia. I initially worked some six years with the newly created Snowy Mountains Authority, mainly in construction sectors, followed by two years each with consulting engineering and construction contracting organisations.
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How to cite this work: Stretton, A. (2025). Ongoing Odysseys in Project Management: Some experiential and allied influences on my perspectives and writings on project management (A Personal Story), PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue IX, September. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/pmwj156-Sep2025-Stretton-Ongoing-Odysseys-in-PM-experiential-influences.pdf
About the Author
Alan Stretton, PhD
Life Fellow, AIPM (Australia)
Sydney, Australia
Alan Stretton is one of the pioneers of modern project management. In 2006 he retired from a position as Adjunct Professor of Project Management in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, which he joined in 1988 to develop and deliver a Master of Project Management program. Prior to joining UTS, Mr. Stretton worked in the building and construction industries in Australia, New Zealand and the USA for some 38 years, which included the project management of construction, R&D, introduction of information and control systems, internal management education programs and organizational change projects. Alan has degrees in Civil Engineering (BE, Tasmania) and Mathematics (MA, Oxford), and an honorary PhD in strategy, programme and project management (ESC, Lille, France). Alan was Chairman of the Standards (PMBOK) Committee of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) from late 1989 to early 1992. He held a similar position with the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) and was elected a Life Fellow of AIPM in 1996. He was a member of the Core Working Group in the development of the Australian National Competency Standards for Project Management. He has published 270+ professional articles and papers. Alan can be contacted at alanailene@bigpond.com.au.
To see more works by Alan Stretton, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/alan-stretton/.
