I am assuming that you have spent some time as a PM. That would have given you some understanding of the in-field challenges. What is not working? Where is the gap? Would you like to solve that? That becomes your quest. Tat may not be the research question or the thesis topic. But that is the start and the objective. If not, then why do you want to research this project management area? Answering that question can give you some direction. Don't look for topic, look at solving a problem or improving a practice.

Here are some suggestions:

Impacts of artificial intelligence on project management.

Inventory management software development.

Software development for the adoption of green information systems.

Development of information systems for social networks.

Thank you Sridhar Mulakaluri . I appreciate your response. I have been a quality assurance practitioner and I have been working closely with PMO. I have also spent little time managing software development projects before I finally tilted toward QA practice/profession. Now that I have full interest in Project Management, I will have to go by your highlighted questions so to generate the idea of the problem I am intending to solve. However, I will not mind your guidance as I am opened to learning more and more.

Tajudeen Onikoyi Great to see your response. Keep exploring and stay in touch please. I have a similar career path where I moved on to mgmt. systems audit and consulting after my brief stint as PM.

Project management and knowledge sharing

Applied PM in Larger companies

Regarding PhD proposal the interest of scholar matters a lot. No doubt, You may get valuable suggestions/guidelines from others that may be very relevant with their interest and experience.

As IT project management is concerned, success of IT projects is questionable. Despite some prefer to use hybrid project management methodologies but still many challenges require to be addressed. You may begin with choosing any broder area such as project management methodologies in practice, project management knowledge areas, software project measurement/metrics, Software estimation, risk assessment, effect of software development life cycle on project management, variables (Enablers, impediments) affecting project success/failures, PM in distributed settings project complexity, abondaned project etc etc and seek where your interest lie. Putting efforts you would be able to write a good proposal at your own that will surely reflect your innovative ideas.

Would it possible to search for recent call for papers in journals and conferences in the area of your interest, it would be helpful for you at the outset to know current research trends in IT project management.

Thank you Rahat H. Bokhari . I appreciate your response and suggestions. I will surely make do with all you suggested and I will be glad if you can recommend great journals for me.

Dear Onikoyi

In different journals Qualitative/quantitative studies relating to software project management/IT project management have been published in different journals with different impact factor.

Just I am sending you a few titles of papers published. The References of each papaer reflect different journal publishing studies relevant to IT/software project management that can be tracked.

1. Charles W. Butler, Leo R. Vijayasarathy, Nicholas Roberts (2019) Managing Software Development Projects for Success: Aligning Plan- and Agility-Based Approaches to Project Complexity and Project Dynamism, Project Management Journal, July, 2019.

2. Bhujang, Raghavi K., Suma, V. (2018) A comprehensive solution for risk management in software development projects, International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications

3.Valério, Karollay Giuliani Oliveira, Sanches da Silva, Carlos Eduardo, Neves, Sandra Miranda (2020) Risk Management in Software Development Projects, International Journal of Open Source Software and Processes

4.Correa, Juan Andrés González, Castañeda, Sandra Liliana Sánchez, Quintero, Deisy Aydee Velandia, Giraldo, Germán Eduardo (2018) Identification and Analysis of Project Management Success Factors in Information Technology SMEs, International Journal of Information Technology Project Management

5. Rozenes, Shai (2011)The Impact of Project Management Methodologies on Project Performance, International Journal of Information Technology Project Management

You should prefer reading material that meet your research interest, surely that is your choice.

Hello Tajudeen Onikoyi. I think that Sridhar Mulakaluri answer was an excellent starting point. To give another suggestion, I would take some time looking for literature gaps on IT PM issues. Take a look only in trustful sources like Scopus and Web of Science. I was PM of IT projects during a long time and I know that there are a lot of articles on the internet written without foundation.

Thank you all André Castello Branco , Rahat H. Bokhari , Maria Ziegler Ramon Ruiz-Navarro and Sridhar Mulakaluri . I appreciate you all. Your words are put me up to the stage and to the spirit of continuity. I am inspired to solving a problem in the research field I have chosen. Thank you all. I will continue to engage you all as I progress.

Hi, I think all the answers are good. As André Castello wrote you should use Scopus and Web os Sciece to search for the topic, maybe look fo a Systematic Literature Review - SLR, that will help you a lot to begin with that and find a gap or a problem to research.

Nowdays there are many topics:

* Project Management Success in SMEs.

* Digital Transformation and Project Management

* Risk Management in IT Projects during the pandemic

* Agility-Based Approaches in IT

* Homeworking, teleworking and the development of Software projects.

* Development of information systems for health.