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# A Brief History of Project Management

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By Duncan Haughey, PMP
2 Jan
2010

In this brief history of project management I chart all the major developments and events in the discipline as far back as there are records. Although there has been some form of project management since early civilization, project management in the modern sense began in the 1950s. See the Project Management Timeline

##### 2570 BC: The Great Pyramid of Giza Completed

The Pharaohs built the pyramids and today archaeologists still argue about how they achieved this feat. Ancient records show there were managers for each of the four faces of the Great Pyramid, responsible for overseeing their completion. We do know there was some degree of planning, execution and control involved in managing this project.

### 208 BC: Construction of the Great Wall of China

Later still, another of the Seven Wonders of the World was built. Since the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC), construction of the Great Wall had been a large project. According to historical data, the labour force was organised into three groups: soldiers, common people and criminals. The Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered millions of people to finish this project.

### 1910-1915: The Gantt chart Developed by Henry Gantt (1861-1919)

One of the forefathers of project management, Henry Gantt is best-known for creating his self-named scheduling diagram, the Gantt chart. It was a radical idea and an innovation of worldwide importance in the 1920s. One of its first uses was on the Hoover Dam project started in 1931. Gantt charts are still in use today and form an important part of the project managers' toolkit.

### 1956: The American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International) Formed

Early practitioners of project management and the associated specialities of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, cost and schedule control formed the AACE in 1956. It has remained the leading professional society for cost estimators, cost engineers, schedulers, project managers and project control specialists since. AACE continued its pioneering work in 2006 releasing the first integrated process for portfolio, programme and project management with their Total Cost Management Framework.

### 1957: The Critical Path Method (CPM) Invented by the Dupont Corporation

Developed by Dupont, CPM is a technique used to predict project duration by analysing which sequence of activities has the least amount of scheduling flexibility. Dupont designed it to address the complex process of shutting down chemical plants for maintenance and then with maintenance completed restarting them. The technique was so successful it saved the corporation $1 million in the first year of its implementation.

### 1958: The Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) Invented for the U.S. Navy's Polaris Project

The United States Department of Defense's US Navy Special Projects Office developed PERT as part of the Polaris mobile submarine launched ballistic missile project during the cold war. PERT is a method for analysing the tasks involved in completing a project, especially the time needed to complete each task and identifying the minimum time needed to complete the total project.

### 1962: United States Department of Defense Mandate the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Approach

The United States Department of Defense (DOD) created the WBS concept as part of the Polaris mobile submarine launched ballistic missile project. After completing the project, the DOD published the work breakdown structure it used and mandated that this procedure be followed in future projects of this scope and size. WBS is an exhaustive, hierarchical tree structure of deliverables and tasks that need to be performed to complete a project. Later adopted by the private sector, the WBS remains one of the most common and effective project management tools.

### 1965: The International Project Management Association (IPMA) Founded

IPMA was the world's first project management association, started in Vienna by a group as a forum for project managers to network and share information. Registered in Switzerland, the association is a federation of about 50 national and internationally oriented project management associations. Its vision is to promote project management and to lead development of the profession. Since its birth in 1965, IPMA has grown and spread worldwide with over 40,000 members in more than 40 countries.

### 1969: Project Management Institute (PMI) Launched to Promote the Project Management Profession

Five volunteers founded PMI as a non-profit professional organisation dedicated to advance the practice, science and profession of project management. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania USA issued Articles of Incorporation for PMI in 1969 which signified its official start. During that same year, PMI held its first symposium in Atlanta, Georgia and had an attendance of 83 people. Since then, the PMI has become best know as the publisher of "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)," considered one of the most essential tools in the project management profession today. The PMI offers two levels of project management certification, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) and Project Management Professional (PMP).

### 1975: PROMPTII Method Created by Simpact Systems Limited

PROMPTII was developed in response to an outcry that computer projects were overrunning on time estimated for completion and original budgets as set out in feasibility studies. It was not unusual to experience factors of double, treble or even ten-times the original estimates. PROMPTII was an attempt to set down guidelines for the stage flow of a computer project. In 1979 the UK Government's Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) adopted the method for all information systems projects.

### 1975: The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Fred Brooks

In his book on software engineering and project management, Fred Brooks's central theme is that "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." This idea is known as Brooks's law. The extra human communications needed to add another member to a programming team is more than anyone ever expects. It naturally depends on the experience and sophistication of the programmers involved and the quality of available documentation. Nevertheless, no matter how much experience they have, the extra time discussing the assignment, commitments and technical details as well as evaluating the results becomes exponential as more people are added. These observations are from Brooks's experiences while managing development of OS/360 at IBM.

### 1984: Theory of Constraints (TOC) Introduced by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his Novel "The Goal"

TOC is an overall management philosophy that is geared to help organisations continually achieve their goal. The title comes from the view that any manageable system is limited in achieving more of its goal by a small number of constraints, and there is always at least one constraint. The TOC process seeks to identify the constraint and restructure the rest of the organisation around it by using Five Focusing Steps. The methods and algorithms from TOC went on to form the basis of Critical Chain Project Management.

### 1986 Scrum Named as a Project Management Style

Scrum is an agile software development model based on multiple small teams working in an intensive and interdependent manner. In their paper "The New New Product Development Game" (Harvard Business Review, 1986), Takeuchi and Nonaka named Scrum as a project management style. Later they elaborated on it in "The Knowledge Creating Company" (Oxford University Press, 1995). Although Scrum was intended for management of software development projects, it can be used to run software maintenance teams, or as a general project and programme management approach.

### 1987: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Published by PMI

First published by the PMI as a white paper in 1987, the PMBOK Guide was an attempt to document and standardise accepted project management information and practices. The first edition was published in 1996, followed by a second in 2000, and third in 2004. The guide is one of the most essential tools in the project management profession today and has become the global standard for the industry.

### 1989: Earned Value Management (EVM) Leadership Elevated to Under-secretary of Defense for Acquisition

Although the earned value concept has been around on factory floors since the early 1900s, it only came to prominence as a project management technique in the late 1980s early 1990s. In 1989, EVM leadership was elevated to the Under-secretary of Defense for Acquisition, thus making EVM an essential part of programme management and procurement. In 1991, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney cancelled the Navy A-12 Avenger II Programme because of performance problems detected by EVM. The PMBOK Guide of 1987 has an outline of Earned Value Management (EVM) subsequently expanded on in later editions.

### 1989: PRINCE Method Developed From PROMPTII

Published by the UK Government agency CCTA, PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE) became the UK standard for all government information systems projects. A feature in the original method, not seen in other methods, was the idea of "assuring progress" from three separate but linked perspectives. However, the PRINCE method developed a reputation as being too unwieldy, too rigid and applicable only to large projects, leading to a revision in 1996.

### 1994: CHAOS Report First Published

The Standish Group collects information on project failures in the IT industry with the objective of making the industry more successful, showing ways to improve its success rates and increase the value of IT investments. The CHAOS report is a biennial publication.

### 1996: PRINCE2 Published by CCTA

An upgrade to PRINCE was considered to be in order and the development was contracted out, but assured by a virtual committee spread among 150 European organisations. Originally developed for IS and IT projects to reduce cost and time overruns; the second revision was made more generic an applicable to any project type.

### 1997: Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) Invented

Developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Critical Chain Project Management is based on methods and algorithms drawn from his Theory of Constraints (TOC) introduced in his 1984 novel titled "The Goal." A Critical Chain project network will keep the resources levelly loaded, but will need them to be flexible in their start times and to switch quickly between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule.

### 1998: PMBOK Becomes a Standard

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recognises PMBOK as a standard in 1998, and later that year by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

### 2006: "Total Cost Management Framework" Release by AACE International

Total cost management is the name given by AACE International to a process for applying the skills and knowledge of cost engineering. It is also the first integrated process or method for portfolio, programme and project management. AACE first introduced the idea in the 1990s and published the full presentation of the process in the "Total Cost Management Framework."

### 2008: 4th Edition of PMBOK Guide Released

The fourth edition of the guide continues the PMI tradition of excellence in project management with a standard that is easier to understand and implement, with improved consistency and greater clarification. The updated version has two new processes not in the previous versions.

### 2009: Major PRINCE2 Revision by Office of Government Commerce (OGC)

A major revision has seen the method made simpler and more easily customisable, a common request from users. The updated version has seven basic principles (not in the previous version) that contribute to project success. Overall the updated method aims to give project managers a better set of tools to deliver projects on time, within budget and to the right quality.

### What's Next?

With globalisation come ever bigger challenges and the need for increased speed-to-market with products and services. Projects become larger, more complex and increasingly difficult to manage. Teams are more diverse and spread across the world. The economic crisis pushes work offshore to low cost countries, which itself presents several issues. The world is changing and project management will need to change with it.

No doubt new techniques and better practices will arise as we push the boundaries of what is possible and new challenges arise. Human need drives us forward to a better future and with it will come improvements in the way we manage projects. When and where these developments will happen is uncertain, but they will happen.

Here's to the next hundred years!

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Comment:

Duncan Haughey
Posted 21 days ago
I dispute your claim that the 1987 white paper (an authoritative guide) wasn't the precursor of the PMBOK Guide. It's is widely accepted (and documented in many journals and publications) as a fact.
Bill Duncan
Posted 21 days ago
Too many errors and omissions. First PMBOK Guide wasn't published in 1987 as a white paper or anything else. The 1987 publication was essentially a glossary of terms and not much more. Gantt adapted bar charts which were initially developed in the UK. Many Brits still refuse to call them Gantt charts. PMI Ethics, Standards, and Accreditation project in 1983 was the genesis of all later professionalism efforts. No mention of IPMA's Competence Baseline or the APM BOK. IPMA was formed as a federation of existing national PM organizations, so it wasn't quite the first one.
Harwinder
Posted 62 days ago
Very interesting !
Igor Kosoy, PMP
Posted 64 days ago
Great post! Thank you so much for putting it all together.
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Agile Project Management

Best Practice

Business Case

Case Studies

Change Management

Communications Management

Cost Management

Earned Value

History of Project Management

IT Project Management

Lessons Learned

Lifecycle & Methodology

Microsoft Project

Miscellaneous

Outsourcing

Pareto Principle

PMBOK & PMP

PRINCE2

Programme Management

Project Documentation

Project Management Office

Project Planning

Project Portfolio Management

Project Sponsorship

Requirements Management

Rescue & Recovery

Risk Management

Role of the Project Manager

Scheduling

Scope Management

Six Sigma

SMART Goals

Stakeholder Management

Team Building

Training

Work Breakdown Structure

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