Emerging technologies and principle-based project management: a systematic literature review and research agenda

Principle-based project management is becoming increasingly important in today’s evolving project economy to enable project managers to deliver value to stakeholders by considering a broader set of guiding behaviors influencing their actions. While researchers predict that project management would “fit well” with emerging technologies, it remains unclear how this relationship would work in light of principle-based project management. This study fills this knowledge gap by analyzing previous research to investigate the influence of emerging technologies on shaping project management principles. We used the normative method preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) to screen 1647 titles and abstracts and finally analyze 121 full papers. The study generated and discussed the effects of emerging technologies on project management principles. This contributes to our understanding of “how do principles guide us in carrying out our projects?” given the digital disruption of project management. We proposed future research based on two new principles, technology value thinking and technology leadership, and examined the dynamic role of emerging technologies on principle-based project delivery models. The study provides project managers and leaders with foundational guidelines for principles-based project management.