Today, human resource management (HRM) is being renewed in organizations and gradually affirming its strategic role. However, the results of an empirical study conducted by Pinto and Prescott [Journal of Management 14 (1988) 5] within a context of project management, contradict this trend. These authors concluded that the "Personnel factor" was the only factor in their research that was marginal for project success. This paper attempts to retest their conclusions in rethinking issues of validity of the measures used in their study. In line with research by Tsui [Human Resource Management 26 (1987) 35; Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1990) 458] and some of Belout's recommendation [International Journal of Project Management 16(1) (1998) 21], the construct validity of the human resources factor has been examined and a model proposed. Results show, first of all, that although there was a link between project success and the Personnel factor (based on the correlation analyses), this factor did not have a significant impact on project success. Our results tend also to confirm that the relationships between the independent variables and project success will vary according to life cycle stage. The results also show that for three distinct structures (functional, project-based and matrix), the Management Support and Trouble-shooting variables were significantly correlated with success. Finally, this study confirm a moderating effect between the independent variables and project success, depending on the sector studied. All in all, this research adds another step in conceptualizing HRM in project context which is still very rudimental. In this sense, researchers should, in the future, improve the construct validity of the Personnel variable by improving the psychometric properties of the questionnaires used in the project management context. This study also shows the problem of multicolinearity, which appears to be excessive in the use of PIP. Finally, a fundamental question is posed: does HRM in the context of project management have specific characteristics that make its role, social responsibility and operation different from the so-called traditional HRM?