Existing theory underpinning IS project management practice is weak, with much of the academic literature focusing on exploitation of the limited existing theory rather than exploration of new theory. In contrast, we argue in this paper that ‘exploratory practice-driven research’ is a high potential and under-utilised approach to address this challenge, where a multi-disciplinary team of researchers work with practitioners to solve significant problems while developing new theory. An approach is presented that focuses on ‘looking for a gap in practice and finding the theory in the gap’. Four examples are presented.

A key finding of this paper is that there are likely to be multiple theories that support the management of IS projects as opposed to a single theory of IS project management. We have not attempted to identify and resolve the different gaps in practice and theory required to fill these gaps. Rather, we have presented a preliminary view based on our background and research program. While many theories can be borrowed from other fields and further developed, the unique challenge for the IS discipline becomes the need to provide an integration of these theories for its own purposes.

Finally, we have provided an approach that may prove fruitful for other areas of IS research where there is both a large and persistent gap in practice, and existing theory is weak and inadequate. In particular, this approach is powerful when there may be multiple problems, multiple theories required, it is not obvious where new theories may come from, and the problems are not close to their presenting symptoms.