1. Assignment on
“BRIEF HISTORY OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT”
Submitted To:
Prof.Saqib Rehmani
Submitted By:
Waseem Akram
Reg# 2131052
MBA (Evening)
st
1 Semester, Spring 2013.
National College of Business Administration & Economics
History of Project Management Reg # 2131052

2. Overview:
Project mangement involves planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of various
activities which are complex and diverse in nature. These activities are mostly found in modern
era of commercial as well as industrial management change of IT projects.
Whatever the nature of the project it comprises on common attributes and characteristics:
i) Creation of new ideas
ii) Implementing and carry on these innovative ideas into accomplishments by using
modern technology.
But one thing remains in project everlasting that is risk because it is uncertainty it can
be reduced rather than eliminate because project brings unique ideas so it’s very
difficult to foresaid and forecasts actual and accurate information and activities that
would be carried on for the accomplishments of the projects.
Brief history of project management
Obviously, man-made projects are not new: monuments existing from the earliest civilizations
testify to the incredible achievements of our ancestors and still evoke our wonder and
admiration. Modern projects, for all their technological complexity, are not necessarily greater in
scale than some of those early massive works. But economic pressures of the industrialized
world, antagonism between rival companies, and greater regard for the value, well-being and
consequently the employment costs of working people have all contributed to the development
of new project supervision ideas and techniques.
Projects from prehistory to Victorian times (before 1900)
Projects from ancient times have left inspiring legacies on our architectural and industrial
culture. We wonder how some of those early masters managed without the technology that is
readily and cheaply available today. However, with the exception of a few notable philanthropic
employers project management concern for the welfare and safety of workers was generally
lacking and many early project workers actually lost their lives through injuries, disease and
sheer physical exhaustion. People were often regarded as cheap and expendable resources.
A lot of of us are familiar with stories of the giants who flourished in the latter part of this
historical period; people such as Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723), Thomas Telford (1757–
1834) and Sambaed Kingdom Brunel (1806–59). You can read about Brunel in Vaughan (1991).
There was no separately recognized profession of project management. Commonsense,
determination, hard work
History of Project Management Reg # 2131052

3. (Sometimes at the expense of neglecting personal health) usually got the job done. The time had
not yet come for the industrial engineers and behavioral scientists who would in due course study
working practices, organization theory and people at work.
Before 1900
 Wonderful projects
 People cheap, even expendable
 Urgency not driven by the rat-race
 Management organization structures seen in the church and the military
 No management scientists
 No project management profession
1900 to 1949
Hasty industrialization and the demands of weapons production in World War 1 saw the
materialization of management scientists and industrial engineers such as Elton Mayo and
Frederick Winslow Taylor, who studied people and productivity in factories (Kanigel, 1997).
Henry Ford made production-line manufacture famous with his Model T automobile and,
especially important for project managers,
Henry Gantt (1861-1919), who worked for Taylor, developed his now-famous charts which are
still popular and used universally today. It is not generally appreciated that early examples of
critical path networks were developed before 1950, although their value was not widely
appreciated at the time. Without the existence of computers, they were inflexible to change,
tedious to translate into working schedules and thus impracticable and difficult to use. Gantt’s
bar charts were generally preferred, often set up on proprietary charts that allowed rescheduling
using movable magnetic or plug-in strips or cards. Everything from the allocation of work to
people and machines to holiday schedules was controlled by charts, usually prominently
displayed on office walls.
1950 to 1969
The emergence of mainframe digital computers made the processing and updating of critical path
networks faster and easier. The American defense industry and Du Pont were among the
organizations quick to exploit this powerful planning and scheduling tool in the 1950s. The
manufacturing and construction industries soon came to recognize the benefits of these new
methods. Computers were large, extremely expensive, and required their own dedicated air-
conditioned clean rooms. Their capital and operating costs were beyond the budgets of all but the
biggest organizations, so that many planners in smaller companies bought their computing time
from bureaux, where project schedules were processed in batch mode. These bureau facilities
were provided both by computer manufacturers and by large companies whose computers had
free time.
History of Project Management Reg # 2131052

4. It was at this time that I cut my project management teeth, and I have fond memories of being
able to plan and control projects and prorammes of multiple projects very successfully, although
processing time was measured in days rather than in today’s nanoseconds. Project management
became a recognized job description, if not yet a respected profession. Companies were showing
more concern for the welfare of people at work, although discrimination because of race, sex and
age was still too common. The year 1968 saw publication of the first edition of this book, at a
time when most other publications dealt with planning and scheduling as separate techniques
rather than treating project management holistically as a management discipline.
1970 to 1979
This period saw rapid growth in information technology, or ‘IT’ (as it soon became known).
Industrial project management continued as before, but with more project management software
available and wider recognition of the role. However, the spread of IT brought another, different
kind of project manager on the scene. These were the IT project managers: people who had no
project planning or scheduling experience and no interest or desire to learn those methods. They
possessed instead the technical and mental skills needed to lead teams developing IT projects.
These IT project managers were usually senior systems analysts, and one of their characteristics
was their scarcity. High demand for their services led them to make frequent career jumps,
moving rapidly up a generous salary scale.
1980 to 1989
During this decade project managers became far less dependent upon IT experts. They now had
their own desktop computers that could run most project management software. Graphics were
greatly improved, with smaller printers available locally in the office that could produce complex
charts in many colours. However, productivity did not match this growth in technology as
quickly as one might have expected because managers became more interested in the technology
itself than in the work that it was intended to manage. People were frequently seen grouped
round each other’s screens asking questions such as ‘What happens if you do this?’ and ‘Have
you tried that?’ or ‘Why has it crashed and lost all my data?’ In other words, managers had to
learn to become ‘computer literate’ and be far less dependent on IT experts. Software that could
run activity-on-arrow networks became obsolete. All planners have since had to use activity-on-
node (precedence) networks in their computers and adapt to the relatively small areas of network
visible on the small screen. However, processing times were cut dramatically, so that schedules
could be up and running much faster for new projects. Schedules could now be updated almost
immediately from the planner’s own keyboard to cope with progress information and project
changes.
History of Project Management Reg # 2131052

5. Today:
Virtually all software suppliers recognized the need to make their products compatible with
Microsoft Windows. Microsoft themselves introduced Microsoft Project into their Office suite of
programs. One or two operating and plotting faults in very early versions of Microsoft Project
were eliminated in later versions, and the program is now by far the most widely used, especially
among students who appreciate its user friendly features (www.microsoft.com/office/project).
However, many professionals continue to use programs at the high end of the software market,
preferring their greater power, flexibility and malleability for particular project applications.
Project risk is taken seriously and people pay more attention to predicting risk events so that
contingencies and risk alleviation strategies can be planned.
Of immense importance is the power of communication made possible by satellites and the
Internet, effectively shrinking the world and making it possible to transmit drawings, reports
another documents almost instantaneously to almost anywhere. Introduction Project management
is no longer considered as two separate branches (one for industrial projects and another for IT
projects). There is wider and welcome acceptance that managing company changes as projects
can bring faster and better results. Many good books dealing comprehensively with all aspects of
project management (except purchasing) are now available in most languages, and there is no
shortage of training courses. Well-regarded professional qualifications awarded by universities,
management schools and the professional organizations can be gained by those who follow the
appropriate training and can demonstrate proficiency.
History of Project Management Reg # 2131052