Evolution of Project Management

How often your Re-volution hasproven but E-vQlution

Alfred Lord Tennyson
poet (1809-1892)
~

.Introduction --
--
Today, project managersplaya key role in launching new products and
managing for success.As.leaders.in the .IT in.du§~ry,project :managers
create strategi~s and orchestrate carefully designed action plans to
complete projects successfully,often incorporating complbx, dynamic
and changing requirements. Fortune magazine calls it Career Number
..1, and project managementis becoming a top career choice for many t.'
, highly talented professionals. What can be more satisfying than man-
aging and delivering a project that createsvalue and profit?
We owe the successof modem project managementpractices to many
previous events, people, and history. over the course of hundreds of
years. We could express the view that the very earliest examples of
I managing projects could go back as far as the cave dwellers. They had
to set about finding and locating the very basic fundamentals, such as
.'; food, heat and shelter. This was managing to achieve objectives-in
.,,' .this case,survival. ~

"
:'

PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor
~
 is now concept of factories and mass production that ushered in the revolu- :
IC5that tion. Advances in steam power, together with new technologies of coal
.and it production, petroleum refining, and others, contributed to this revolu-
tion. The introduction of the telegraph as a communication technology
added the final component to the revolution.
There was a social price to pay in te.-ms of human exploitation. Chil- !
dren and women laborers often worked in appalling conditions. The I
reforms of organizations, such as the Chartist Movement, a moral i
force that demanded change through peaceful methods of persuasion !
I.!llrill~ and other refor~ers, would work hard and long to abolish these intol- I
-I h~ga)l erable working conditions. !
llr~'" Ar ; I

f:Jrth;
nd had

'~:~~i~lil~ ~ Key People in Early Project Management

larkcts -Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) was an American industrialist and an
~ man- early pioneer of managementtechniques. On his gravestone in Pennsyl-
revol~~ vania is inscribed the epitaph the "Father of Management." He used a
" to the scientific approach to understanding the steps in completing a product
--and using money to create added inccntive lor workers who exceedthe
;ut"1.50 t,' --" .-work "average" level of
principles in production. Hedeveloped
st~el mills and spent somehistime studying the
management b~sic -
principle
Ich as: --;
from them.
n ..' In 1911, Taylor published a landmark book, Principles of Scientific
,: Management, in which he proposed work methods' designed to
increase worker productivity significantly. Although many organiza-
ented-tions adopte-dhis methods at that time, organized labor unions in the
United States strongly objected to Taylor's proposals, which led to a
;on in good deal of controversy and-Congressional hearings.
The Taylor Model is an important milestone in the evolution of rnan-
ler in agement theory. Before this, the only way to obtain productivity
increaseswas to demand inore workers or to get people to work longer
1861. and harder. Taylor's principles gave rise to dramatic productivity
increases. He was the first person to encourage management and
>rethis employeesto "work smarter."
nd ser': Taylor:s managementprinciples included: -
Jr mus- .' .

ed the ..Analyze eachjob to specify optimal procedures

~ement Key People in Early Project Management 5

I
PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor
I
 ~;I!),;,,;t!4~~::,:;;'.,
.

.Match skills with tasks to be accomplished

.Understand worker characteristics that are important for
increasedproductivity
.Train worket:s to be more productive
.Set a "fair day's work" standard £.orproductivity expectations
,
.Document worker performance
.Reward performance with incentives and bonuses .-
.Complete managementand reporting of all work

-An associate of Frederick Taylor was Henry Gantt (1861-1919). He

becamefamous for the Gantt chart that we use today in project man-
agement. Gantt studied the construction of U.S. Navy ships during
World War I and found that he could understand the complexities of
construction much better by drawiIlg charts. An example of this kind
of chart appearsin Figure1-1, below.
Gantt invented techniques such as milestone deliverables, task dura-
tion, and estimates. Although enhanced with modern techniques
such as' dependencies, much of the content an9- format of Gantt -
charts has remained unchanged for 100 years. This is a remarkable

---~

~-
o.lert.~
IEC- ,

~I

~1 "
-IS

=,~~~-~~-~-
~
~A
a..r.,
-..'Y.-QA

\"21<'-
'7--' ; ! i

--i\o.,~ !!
i
A_I i
.' -' "," ';'-; 'it~$~!i.j~

Figure 1-1 Example of a Gantt chart.

6 Chapter 1 I Evolution of Project Management

".
PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor
""'-~
"' =
..feat of technology endurance, particularly in an age that justifies
changes in terms of minutes.
Henry Gantt began project management by asking some fundamental
questions, then expressing them in a graphical format. He askedques-
tions tions such as: .
,
.How long will the project take?
.What are the critical tasks that must be completed? I
.How long will each task take? I
.-When must each task start and end?
-I
:
9). He .Who will be responsible f~r eachtask? ~
t m~n- .What resourceswill be required to complete eachtask? J
during H
WiIl de1ayed tasks a ff ect t he prOJectf
O
ities 6f .ow ."' :!;
":~

is kind .What is the impact of a modification to the project scope? ,:j

.What is the total cost of the project? ,t:~
Ie

dura- .Wha~ is the cost of eachtask? ~

niquf.5 .Is the project on s(;hedule? ~i
Gantt How can slippage problems be corrected?
rkable .Wh~t is the project's cost at any pQint in time?
,;;\ ., --Is th_erea w~y to speed up the project? 'II
II ;; Another significant pioneer a! this time ~as Dr. W. Edwards Deming 1:
" -

I -(1900-1993 ).)ust as Frederick-Taylor was' the father of management,

~ ...so we can claim Deming as the father of quality. Born in 1900, he grew
I up on a Wyoming homestead just as the new frontier was taming t?e [
~ Wild West. During World War ll, he taught courses throughout the., '.,
~ country. His emphasis on quality in the United States led to the cre-
~;\ ation of the American Society of Quality Control, of which Deming I'ft,
" ;

~ was a charter member. Immediately after the war, his serviceswere in

~~ demand overseas,and it was then that he first visited Japan. The term
~ made in Japan was about to tak~ on an entirel~ new meaning as it
I~' became known as the Japanesemiracle. Meanwhile, the management
: ..techniques developed by Frederick Taylor were gaining wide accep-
0 0
i. tance 10post-war America. ~
~ Deming realized that management was wrong to be committed to '
A quotas and punishing for mistakes, and that it would l1flve to have :
-visionary leaders to achieve quality. From that need, Deming cre-
ated his now-famous 14 Points to provide a management theory to

Key People in Early Project Management 7

PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressorI..
I
 -

support his ideas, and the rest is history. Figure 1-2 illustrates
Deming as we know him.
Basic Deming managementphilosophy is summarized below:

1. Create Constancy of Purpose for ~he-Improvement of All Prod~

ucts and Services '
2. Adopt New Management Philosophy
3. CeaseDependenceon Mass Inspection
4. End the Practice of Awarding Businesson Price Tag Alone
5. Improve Constantly and Forever the System of Production and
Serviee
-6. EstablishTraining and Retraining
7. Create Management Leadership
8.Drive Out Fear-Do Not Punish for Mistakes
9. Break Down Barriers Between Staff Areas
10. Eliminate Slogans, Exhortations, and Targets for the Work
Farce
11. Eliminate Numerical Quotas
..12. Remove Barriers_toPride of P-roficiency
-;i'- .-13. Institute- a Vigorous,- Continuous Program of Education and -
R~training
---14. Take Action To Accomplish the Transformation --
--.
For over 40 years after the end of World War II, Deming continued his
work, evolving theories, writing books, consulting with governments

-' --
Figure 1-2 Dr. W. Edwards Deming. His aim was to foster the
advancement of commerce, prosperity, and peace.

8 Chapter 1 I Evolution of Project Management

coc'-
-~--cC~-'-
PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor
c~:~cc~!
 and industry, conducting seminars, and making improvements in man-
aging for quality. Managing projects the Deming way has had a pro-
found effect on the overall quality of projects.

Prod-

~ Other Significant Events

Many other events and people have contributed to the modern success
d of project management. This book has attempted to list some of the
In an more significant milestones, beginning from t-heIl1dustria! Revolution.

The mobilization of manufacturing of guns

and ammunitions in large quantities.
Development of tanks, flight, and other
technology.
Work Peace-and working toward creating better
{. output, better productivity, and mass pro-
duction. Henry ford's Model T is a case in
point.
World War II War -again ~eant building better, faster
--ships-, and planes, and moving people tQ
fight in remote parts of the world. Radar, jet
--engines, -and other technologies-invented.
ed his First computersappeared. .
ments 1950s The nuclear age is ushered in with terrible
\veapons. During this time, a great number
of inventions in electronics, health, and
manufacturing appeared.
The SpaceAge The Space Age brings huge advances in
computers, communications, and many
other technologies. First computers with
transistors appeared in 1954.
Mainframes In mid-1960, IBM launches Project 360,
developed by Gene Amdahl. A mainframe
computer, the IBM 360 series, had inter-
changeable peripherals and devices.Main-, ~
frames had arrived.

:!ment 9

PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor
I
 cjj1.:,'?

r-
The Silicon Chip The microprocessor comes into its own
with an increasing number of transistors
on a single wafer. Geoffrey Moore postu-
lates his law of doubling transistors on
chips. .
,
4GLs Work on advancessuch as Fourth-Genera-
tion Languages (4GLs) appear. In 1982
and 1983, the author resear<.:hed'" book
for James Martin-Application Develop-
ment u'ithout Programmers-which sug-
gests that we can de.velop _and m_anage
projects much better if we use end users
and new software.

~ Conclusions
Project managementis a continuing set of process improvementiriitia-
~ives.We h.avegained much in a short space of time. From the lndu$-
t~ial Revolution arid improvements in deliVering good~ arid servicesto
the early days of the 19S0s,when-project mana-gemeIitsoftware ran on
mainframes, to the sophisticated software of today that can show man"'
--,. agers instantly where they are in a project. A4though the tools and the.
methods may have changed ~nd c;:ontinu~to evo~v~,the key,compo-
nents of project management remain constant. It is about people)pro-
cesses,and technology working together in a powe~ful union to do
things better, faster,and more effi~iently.

..
.' ..-
~

10 Chapter 1 I Evolution of Project Management

~-'-.. ._~'-~---~=~=.~ ~ W"~

-' ;..!~:jC;'I"'~~~
PDF compression, ~~~; evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor
OCR, web optimization using a watermarked