Systems thinking and project management-Time to reunite

The practice of project management has its origin in systems analysis and systems engineering. Systems analysis requires the setting of clear and credible objectives and the formulation of viable alternatives. Systems engineering is goal-seeking, and emphasises communication and feedback control. This hard approach was found to be inadequate in dealing with soft, ill structured, ambiguous problems. A soft systemic methodology is recommended as a complement which encourages purposeful multilearning and the development of enriched mental capability or models, individually and collectively within an organization. The purpose of the paper is to build bridges to link project management with the extended body of knowledge in systems thinking, incorporating the soft systemic methodology.