Book excerpt: Modern society and modern projects are extraordinarily more complex than when modern project management was conceived in the 1950s. Though the discipline has evolved greatly over the past nearly 60 years, the foundation of contemporary project management has not changed--until now. This article examines project management second order (PM-2), exploring this new paradigm for managing projects and describing its solutions for addressing contemporary project-related problems as well as it principles, methods, and processes for implementing and managing projects. In doing so, it overviews the development of PM-2, a concept developed by a research team headed by the author; it notes the limitations of using traditional project management and summarizes the historical development of the traditional approach, which the author calls project management first order (PM-1). It lists some of the previously published papers looking at the field's need for a new project management approach; it defines PM-2's key purpose and the difference between the principles that inform and shape both PM-1 and PM-2. It discusses the two cybernetic cycles that are influencing project management practices, describing how the first cycle represents traditional project management and the second cycle represents complexity management. It then outlines a systemic architecture and process model for practicing PM-2, detailing PM-2's four basic elements, potential uses, appropriateness for different project types, and principles, methods, and processes. It discusses how project managers can use PM-2 to implement and manage actual projects, describing how one of PM-2 basic elements--known as World 2--is enhancing the practical use of such project management approaches as the US Department of Defense's evolutionary acquisition (EA), agile project management, complex project managers competency standard (CPMCS), and multi-project firms at the edge of chaos (MUPEC). It also describes possible solutions for integrating PM-2 with CPMCS, MUCPEC, and PMI standards.