Introduction
We cannot overstate the significance of translating theory into a practical application (PA); it transforms abstract concepts into concrete realities. To sustain a realistic outcome from translating theory into practice depends on compatibility between the theory and phenomenon it describes, explains, and predicts. Studies show that when theory and practice are aligned and compatible, they produce tangible, accurate, and satisfactory outcomes. Through projectification, programification, and globalization escalation (PPGE), the project management (PM) domain has expanded stretching across academic sciences, industries, and borders and transforming organizational operations from achieving short-range to long-range goal-achieving. Projectification is a formal act of changing the structure of an organization to perform regular corporate operations along with PM temporary functions. Project-based organizations (PBOs) adopt the strategies and roles of an enterprise and PM proven standards to deliver products and services. Programification is a formal process of changing the structure of an existing organization to manage a group of programs or projects permanently. Globalization is an act of increasing organizational function, operation, activity, and stakeholders across frontiers. It increases risks and opportunities. Globalization is the outgrowth of the intensification of market boundaries, stakeholders, and interdependencies across borders.
The expansion of PM fields due to PPGE efforts have equally enlarged the complexity, nonlinearity, and uncertainty. Unfortunately, PM’s extant theory and methodology have not kept pace with the dictates of these emergent, evolutionary, and complex phenomena. A gap, therefore, exists between PM theory and its PA. Project Management Theory 2.0 (PMT 2.0) helps us better understand project management theoretical foundation, bar none. PMT 2.0 describes the complexity, nonlinearity, uncertainty, and web of interconnectivity of projectification, programification, and globalization. This study will discuss the relationship between theory and practice, how theory can guide or inform practice, and the issues involved in translating theory into practice. The study will also describe PMT 2.0 and define the application of a theory to an actual situation.
