Harrison, J., & Whyte, J. (2026). Future-Making in the Front-End of Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 102854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2026.102854
Interestingly, Harrison & Whyte’s (2026) conclusions inspired me to conceptualize and set up a class of blogposts which I am calling ‘Reflexive Reviews’ (see categories in the right-hand sidebar). What naturally caught my eye was their advocacy for “for more inquiry-led planning in projects” (p. 5), given the arguments I make in my article-based doctoral thesis and my 20 years of front-end inquiry for informing client projects as well as my own research studies. A reflexive review, thus, becomes a way for me to intersperse my observations from field studies and from client project management experiences with the contents of their essay. Whether the reflexivity of my dialectical engagement with literature on my blog is ‘critical reflexivity’ or not is path dependent on the research selected for such a review. I believe it was Alvesson & Sandberg (2011) who observed that the “critical” in ‘critical reflexivity’ can sometimes overwhelm the “reflexivity” (see pg. 252).
Here, I take the stance of an experienced practitioner in doing more or less that which Harrison & Whyte (2026) advocate for in their discourse of project management. What is interesting is that what I’ve been doing has its roots in the front-end of human-centered design and product development, also called innovation planning or design planning (Owen 1992, 2001; Kumar 2012; Keeley et al. 2013). I will use another quote to help explain where I discern nuanced differences between understandings of inquiry, planning, and the front-end when approached from different disciplines (see Davies, Manning & Söderlund 2018). Emphasis is added to distinguish the two viewpoint they compare.
We suggest that project planning could benefit from complementing early-stage certainty and commitment with more reflexive and inquiry- led practices that allow for iteration, divergence, and adaptation over time. (Harrison & Whyte 2026:5 with emphasis added)
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