R.V.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, BANGALORE-560059

(Autonomous Institution Affiliated to VTU, Belgaum)

The Evolution of Project Management

SELF STUDY REPORT

Subject: Project Management

Submitted by:

SUSHANT S JOSHI 1RV17ME113

PAYEL BANERJEE 1RV17BT033
ROOPAK N 1RV17ME086

Faculty In charge: VIKRAM N BAHADURDESAI

Designation: Assistant Professor
Department: Industrial Engineering and Management

Submitted to:

Industrial Engineering and Management Department

Introduction:

Project Management has the history of thousands of years. The 1950s marked the start of the
fashionable project management era, before then projects were managed on an ad-hoc basis
using mostly informal techniques and tools. during this report we attempt to line out some
milestones of Project Management History.
The importance of project management is a crucial topic because all organisations, be they
small or large, at just one occasion or other, are involved in implementing new undertakings.
These undertakings could also be diverse, such as, the event of a replacement product or
service; the establishment of a replacement assembly line during a manufacturing enterprise;
a PR promotion campaign; or a serious building programme. Whilst the 1980’s were about
quality and therefore the 1990’s were all about globalisation, the 2000’s are about velocity.
As a discipline project management developed from different fields of application including
construction, engineering, telecommunications and defence. The 1950s marked the start of
the fashionable project management era. before the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad-
hoc basis using mostly Gantt charts, or with informal techniques and tools.
The U.S. Navy greatly contributed to the formulation and documentation of principles of
recent project management methodologies and techniques. there have been also other
noteworthy projects, like the Manhattan project, that significantly contributed to
advancement of ordinary practices in modern project management.

During the 1960s ambitious projects like landing a person within the moon further helped
within the formation and utilization of tools to manage large scope projects. within the 1970s
technological advancement made the creation of project management software possible, via
software companies like Oracle. within the 1980s PCs became affordable, subsequently
smaller companies began to use computers for project management. within the 1990s
notable project management tools like PRINCE2 and CCPM commenced.

It is possible to mention that the concept of project management has been around since the
start of history. it's enabled leaders to plan bold and large projects and manage funding,
materials and labour within a delegated time-frame . Moreover, project management
theories, tools, and techniques are now mainstream in many organizations and industries.
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT:

We humans have started performing on projects since ancient history. Throughout history,
ingenious architects and engineers have delivered impressive projects like the good Pyramid
of Giza, the good Wall of China, the Coliseum, the hanging gardens of Babylon and therefore
the Stonehenge to call a couple of .

As mentioned above one among the earliest sorts of project management dates back to
Ancient Egypt that's the development of King Khufu's Pyramid at Giza, in 2570 BC. consistent
with historians and ancient records, Egyptians appointed managers to oversee the
completion of every of the four sides of the pyramid, and that they were also liable for the
design and therefore the execution of the project.
Also, the workforce was supported by a project infrastructure with accounting and
management skills, and a huge supply chain of food, materials and tools. At Giza the project
workforce was divided into crews of roughly 2,000 then sub-divided into named gangs of
1,000 with a manager because the head of every crew

Another great example of how project management appeared in ancient history is that the
construction of the good Wall of China, in 208 BC. This time, not only did the emperor order
many people to finish the project, but he also made sure that his workforce was divided into
three separate groups: soldiers, civilians and criminals who were managed my by the
managers hired by the emperor himself.
Another example of the project management is that the Parthenon: Athens, Greece (477-438
BCE). the first objective for Pericles, the principal stakeholder, was to create a powerful
temple, the Parthenon, to architecturally adorn the Acropolis. The Athenians had notions of
perfection that they called Symmetria, the harmonious relationship of part to part and of the
part to the entire . As a part of the project charter the Parthenon was to be an expression of
those ideas, a wonderfully symmetrical building.

Next examples is that the Colosseum: Rome (circa 70s). The Romans had mastered several
technologies that made the Colosseum possible. They used concrete for the core with a
veneer of costly materials applied to the surface . Concrete was one among the foremost
significant Roman construction materials (200 B.C.E.). The Romans improved Greek Cement
by using finely ground volcanic lava (pozzolana) in situ of clay, and this was the strongest
mortar in history until the event of hydraulic cement . The addition of small fragments of
volcanic rubble resulted in concrete, which made possible the arch. This material technology
had been perfected over 300 years. an enormous workforce was wont to do research over
the cement and other materials and for the building of the Colosseum. The design of such
complicated structure, organisation of the various sort of workforce the white collar and blue
collar workers and solving disputes between them and even the monitoring and execution of
the plan demanded variety of Project management skill.
From a project management perspective, the Eastern Roman Empire and Islam is where
construction projects continued, driven primarily by religion. There was a rise within the use
of natural materials like stone and wood because the production of concrete wasn't readily
available.

The Emperor Justinian ordered the development of a cathedral, Hagia Sophia. because the
principal stakeholder he set the project charter that the cathedral was to be a showpiece and
surpass in magnificence all earlier cathedrals.

These architects and engineers were serving their primary roles of engineers and designers
also as project managers within the above mentioned examples as there was no specific job
referred to as project manager within the past but unknowingly or knowingly the project
management was involved altogether of those .
For these projects to succeed, these engineers became project managers, had to carefully
believe all the processes of the project starting with the initiation and planning phases to
execution and monitoring all the thanks to closing of the project.
For each of those projects, someone had to manage the hundreds to thousands of workers
for several years, ensure there was enough supply to sustain the project, confirm the project
is on target, and in fact, the top result had to fulfil expectations of the commander
management theories, tools, and techniques are now mainstream in many organizations and
industries.
The Modern History of Project Management:

The modern history is more scientific with all the techniques and skills documented. It also
helps us combine or join the Management, Organisation and Science together.

The first and second Industrial Revolutions caused some huge changes within the
development of project management. Although the 2 revolutions are mainly related to
improved working and living conditions, with urbanisation and great engineering works (like
the primary railway and therefore the completion of the primary transcontinental railroad)
their effect on project management couldn't be overlooked easily as many Project
management skills and techniques were developed during this era. During the industrial
revolution, industry expanded rapidly all over the world. The beginning of automation and
the growth of factories meant that everything was done on a much greater scale. This, in turn,
meant that people were able to manage projects in a completely different and more extensive
way.

The 20th century:

The 20th century saw significant changes in the world of project management. Both Frederick
Taylor (often referred to as the Father of Scientific Management) and his friend Henry Gantt
played an important role in the way projects were managed which are still used to manage
projects today.

1911:

In 1911, the publication of Frederic Taylor’s The Principle of Scientific Management, which
he based on his work in the steel industry, was an attempt to help unskilled workers transition
to new, more complexed projects by simple learning techniques. He pioneered the need for
incentive-based wage systems, and how to take advantage of time-saving techniques.

1917:

Henry Gantt, known as one of the forefathers of project management, is probably best known
for creating and designing his famous diagram the Gantt chart in 1917 a radical idea at the
time, and an innovation that changed the way projects were managed and documented in
the 20th century. Developed in 1917, the aim of Gantt's chart was to track the progress of
ship building projects during World War I. By documenting and examining each step of the
process, he was able to get a clear overall view of the entire project and gather information
about the connection between various functions.

The Gantt chart was the shot heard around the project management world. It was also used
in the building of the Hoover Dam in 1931, which was one of its first major implementations.
Gantt charts continue to be used today and have transitioned to the digital world with online
versions that make them easier to use.
The figure above show how Gantt Chart used to look in the early 20 th century before the
invention of the computers and other software’s.

1950’s:

The Critical Path technique was founded in this year. It is a technique that is used to predict
how long a project will take. It analyses which sequence of activities has the least amount of
scheduling flexibility. The technique was developed by Dupont in 1957 to help work through
the complexities of shuttering chemical plants for routine maintenance. The Critical Path
proved so successful that it saved Dupont $1 million the first year it used it.

And in 1958, the United States Department of Defence’s US Navy Special Projects Office
developed the Program Evaluation Review (PERT). It was developed as a method to analyse
the tasks involved in completing a Polaris mobile submarine-launched ballistic missile project.
It focused on the time needed to complete each task and identified the minimum amount of
time required to finish the whole project.
1960’s:

In the year 1962 the Work Break Structure was founded by the US Department of Defence.
It is a complete hierarchical tree structure of the deliverables and tasks needed to complete
a project with each task explained in brief. It was also part of the Polaris project. After the
project was done, the Department of Defence, mandated the procedure’s use for all future
projects. The figure shows tan example of the work break system;

In the year 1965, the International Project Management Association (IPMA) was founded. It
is the world’s first project management association. Founded in Vienna as a means for project
managers to network, the organization is now registered in Switzerland and is compiled of 50
national and internationally oriented project management associations. As of 2012 it had over
120,000 members. It governs all the old and new Project management techniques and helps
modify them.

In 1969 a non-profit Organisation Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded.

Incorporated in Pennsylvania, it held its first symposium in Atlanta in 1969. It has since
published A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which outlines
the processes and knowledge areas of project management and became standard in 1998.
PMI is also a certification body, offering both the Certified Associate in Project Management
(CAPM) and the Project Management Professional (PMP).
1980’s:

Though nothing major happened in 1970’s but the constant growth and improvement of the
Project Management continued with led to many reforms and inventions in the next decade.

First introduced by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his 1984 novel The Goal, The Theory of
Constraints (TOC) was applied in the creation of the Critical Chain Project Management. The
management philosophy of this theory was developed to help an organization meet its goals.
The name of the theory comes from the idea that a manageable system is limited in achieving
its goals by several constraints which is true in every case as each organisation or industries
have its own boundary conditions/constraints which must be taken in to consideration before
applying any kind of project management technique.

In the year 1989 Earned Value Management (EVM) came to prominence as technique in
project management although it was been around since the turn of the 1900’s. It helps in the
measurement of a project performance by using a systematic project management process
to find variances in projects based on the comparison of work performed and work planned.
It is a powerful predictor of cost and schedule control. In the same the PRINCE (Projects In
Controlled Environments) was introduced although it had a lot of criticism due to which it was revised
in 1996 and was renamed as PRINCE2.
1990’s & onwards:

As already mentioned above in the year 1996 the revised form of PRINCE renamed as PRINCE2
was introduced.

In 1997, Eliyahu M. Goldratt developed Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), which is
based on the methods and algorithms of his Theory of Constraints. It keeps resources levelly
loaded, while remaining flexible to their start times, and switching between tasks when
necessary to keep the project on schedule. In brief it was the same Theory of Constraints but
with flexibility.

In the year 2001, the Agile Manifesto or the Software Development Manifesto was created.
Although use of iterative and incremental development methods traces back to 1957 with
evolutionary project management, though adaptive software development didn’t emerge
until the 1970s. But the widespread use of Agile as a project style was codified with the
creation of this.

The Future:
Thanks to globalisation and our rapidly changing world, projects are becoming larger and
more complex, and therefore increasingly difficult to manage due to which new project
management techniques and more efficient practices are no doubt appearing, which makes
project management a very interesting and exciting place to be.
The above picture gives the schematic of the history of the Project Management
The Conclusion:

Understanding the past, gives us a chance to better understand the future. Studying the
history of project management, one will understand that project management has evolved
throughout history. Its continuous evolvement facilitated the advancement of project
management, and hence paved the way for the next big project.

In spite of the numerous substantial projects in history, there is little documentation of the
methodologies or techniques before the 1950s. Advancements in science and technology
expedited the progression of project management as a profession. It is now widely accepted
that a project manager requires a special set of skills. As organizations evolve, so will the
challenges facing future project managers. However, while the future may require future
project managers to adapt by learning new specialized skills, the fundamental elements that
make a project manager a great one will not change; leadership, pragmatism, decisiveness,
communication and foresight to name a few.
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Journals Referred:
Dr. Tom Seymour & Sara Hussein, The History Of Project Management: Minot State University,
USA

Chiu, Y. (2010). An introduction to the History of Project Management: From the Earliest
Times to A.D.1900. Delft: Eburon.

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DI Cleland - IEEE transactions on engineering Management, 2004 - ieeexplore.ieee.org

D Waddell - Problems and perspectives in management, 2005 - irbis-nbuv.gov.ua

R Evaristo, PC Van Fenema - International journal of project management, 1999 - Elsevier