History of Project Management

Project Management

"Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan."

* K. Tate

Project management, in the modern sense, began in the early 1950s, although it has its roots much further back in the latter years of the 19th century. The need for project management was driven by businesses that realized the benefits of organizing work around projects and the critical need to communicate and coordinate work across departments and professions. The government, military and corporate world have now adopted this practice.

History

In the 19th century, the rising complexities of the business world showed how project management evolved from management principles. In this country, the first large organization was the transcontinental railroad, which began construction in the early 1870s. Suddenly, business leaders found themselves faced with the intimidating task of organizing the manual labor of thousands of workers and the manufacturing and assembly of unprecedented quantities of raw material.

Near the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) began his detailed studies of work. He applied scientific reasoning to work by showing that labor can be analyzed and improved by focusing on its elementary parts. He applied his thinking to tasks found in steel mills, such as shoveling sand and lifting and moving parts. Before then, the only way to improve productivity was to demand harder and longer hours from workers.

Taylor's associate, Henry Gantt (1861-1919), studied in great detail the order of operations in work. His studies of management focused on Navy ship construction during WWI. His Gantt charts, complete with task bars and milestone markers, outline the sequence and duration of all tasks in a process. Gantt chart diagrams proved to be such a powerful analytical tool for managers that they remained virtually unchanged for nearly a hundred years. It wasn't until the early 1990s that link lines were added to these task bars depicting more precise dependencies between tasks. Taylor, Gantt, and others helped evolve management into a distinct business function that requires study and discipline (Sisk, 2011).

The Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed, in 1969, to professionalize and modernize through formalizing project management tools and techniques. In addition, today with rapid technological advancement, thriving IT industries, and globalization, project management solutions are in demand throughout the world as a fundamental force to complete projects within a defined scope, time, and within cost constraints. (Bista, 2006)

Case Study #1: AT&T

AT&T, a worldwide leader in technology communications, established a Project Management Center of Excellence (PMCOE) in order to institute common standards, foster a project management culture and improve individual and organizational competencies. This program targeted over 10,000 project managers, program managers and their supervisors with the mission to be recognized internally as the resource for project management consulting, mentoring, training, processes, tools and techniques.

In 2005, Southwestern Bell Corp, SBC, and AT&T finalized a merger. This merger brought together two distinct project management improvement organizations with slightly different areas of focus which was a challenge for the PMCOE. This change forced the PMCOE to re-evaluate the project and determine how to appropriately fuse the strengths of the two organizations.

With 10,000 employees that make up AT&T's project management community, the PMCOE was also finding it difficult to determine the best way to necessitate and support this large community that in which each unit has different needs and concentrations. Finally, effective and efficient communication was also a large challenge due it is sizable and worldwide project management population. Without appropriate communication, the PMCOE risked going unrecognized and not being used to its full potential.

As a solution to these challenges the PMCOE applied a project management methodology that was in complete alignment with A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). They instituted 5 steps for successful project management: Initiating Process, Planning Process, Executing Process, Monitoring and Control Process, and Closing Process. They also establish consultants and distributed surveys to identify problem areas. As a result, the PMCOE project was achieved within budget and ahead of schedule. The first PMCOE Client Satisfaction Survey showed greater than anticipated awareness and appreciation of the PMCOE mission, objectives, and offerings (Project Management Institute, 2011).

Case Study #2: IBM

For almost a century, IBM shaped the way business works. But by the early 1990s, consecutive years of billion dollar losses led some to conclude that it would become a casualty of the personal computer revolution that it had helped create. As the world's largest technology

service's company and ranked by Business Week as possessing the most valuable technology brand in the world, ahead of Microsoft and Google, they needed to make some changes in order to survive.

IBM, for ten years, has been a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) and It currently employs more people with the Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential than any other organization in the world. This participation in the R.E.P. program and employing PMP credential holders helped IBM deliver tangible value to their business, from increasing operational efficiency to aiding business development.

They declared IBM a "Project-based Enterprise," one whose success relied upon project management providing tangible benefits in two areas: making internal operations more efficient and providing external value to its customers. In order to achieve this transformation, they created the Project Management Center of Excellence (PM-COE), which would work with senior executives, business units and individual employees to establish project management as a core competency across their global enterprise. As a result, IBM has had an increase in performance, profitability, and growth (Project Management Institute, 2011).

Case Study #3: Chile Soccer Stadiums

The problem: build four stadiums, from the ground to the sky, in only nine months' time. In 2008, Chile won the right to host the 2008 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Under-20 Women's World Cup. Due to FIFA's strict regulations, 4 cities