Project Management may strike one as a recent buzzword, however the concept
has been around for thousands of years. The history of project management dates to
ancient Egyptian times where projects such as building pyramids required the managing
of scope, materials, budgets, and workforce to create deliverables in a timeframe.
Fast forward to the early 20th century, we have a person named Henry Gantt
who created a chart to show complex project schedules. The chart today is known as a
“Gantt” chart and is widely used in Project Management. Project Management
continued to evolve as more and more things were added. Frederic Taylor an associate
of Henry Gantt introduces theories of management. His theories made tasks efficient by
using fine tuning techniques. Other methods of scheduling were also developed such as
Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) and The Critical Path Method (CPM).
PERT scheduling charts analyzed tasks to identify the minimal amount of time required
to completing a project. CPM is an algorithm for scheduling project activities where it
lists all activities required for a project, the length of time for each activity, and any
dependencies between the activities. Although these methods of scheduling are not
exactly what is found in modern society, Project Management remains as the process
for overlooking the planning, organizing, and implementing of a project.
In modern day, we heavily integrate new technologies into our projects and the
tools that manage them. Examples such as the internet and computers greatly help us
discover risks and increase efficiency of our work. The project management process
lifecycle tends to follow the general structure of gathering analysis about the
requirements and resources needed to complete the project. Developing the
architectural design, executing the implementation followed by finalizing and
maintaining the project are all part of the structure. Strategies in project management
differ in workloads and rates at which the steps are individually completed. With such
technologies, the project management process stays relatively the same, but new tools
and devices help teams produce a much-improved final product.
Works Cited:
Collins, Jeff. “A Brief History of Project Management.” Scalable Project Management and Control Solutions, www.ims-web.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-project-management.
History of Project Management, 2015, historyofprojectmanagement.com/. Accessed 14 February 2018.
Sullivan, Niall. Brief History of Project Management Timeline. 27 Feb. 2017, cloud-collaboration.kahootz.com/brief-history-of-project-management-timeline.
“The History of Project Management.” YouTube, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1uxCBx2-UQ.> Accessed 14 February 2018
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