History and Evolution of Project Management

Project Management
Project management, as we know it at the moment started to stretch out its branches only a few decades ago, but it was mounting all over civilization from the start of history.

With an objective of maximum result with minimum involvement, and to breed thought into reality, human need for an optimal management technique that could trigger personnel productivity to yield product, that is predetermined and objectified was outlining a management system throughout the development of human perception though out its progress.

This stream of development in its respective path also had marked its course from its source, and events in its voyages have been observed and registered in the pages of history.

Turning these pages, right now we witness a basic endeavor to depict and analyze activities through simple bar charts cultivated seed yesterday, and within a short span of time, it had expanded to a huge tree of the project management industry we witness today.

"Henry Gantt" is actually the forefather of project management, since his planning and also organizing approaches with the use of the "bar charts" as a project management tool recognizes him as the principal precursor for contemporary project management practices employed in these days.

Yet, humankind was applying an nameless management system for carrying out tasks carried out by them since the beginning of civilization; as at present we could see Pyramids, Roman constructions, etc as one of most great achievements human workforces had ever delivered.

To take into consideration these huge project missions with none appropriate management design would be an unjust platform to write about today for the forefathers. The conception of project management was there in the womb of our culture from the start, but its name is coined and structure is fabricated by our modern world.

As a discipline, project management has evolved from numerous other fields, including engineering, construction, military projects, and so forth. Should we have to indicate the date of identification for this management system then we need to start not before the industrial revolution, as this revolution sprouted a complex need of organizational management and connection. The necessity of budget management, personnel employment, demand and supply scaling, compels to formulate the management system that was methodological and goal oriented.

Frederick Taylor, who introduced a systematic method for understanding productiveness measurement through performance leveling, led him as the father of scientific approaches in organizational management systems.

Moreover, his partner Henry Gantt's use of the bar diagram as a gauging process for planning and controlling, acknowledged him as a father of project management tools and equipment.

But the 1950's was known as a date for the beginning of contemporary project management; as before the 50's projects were managed only with the popular use of Gantt charts and informal tools and statistics.

Furthermore, the immediate launch of the Polaris submarine missile project to fulfill the necessity of the missile gap with Russia; the US Army systemized a "Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT devised by Willard Fazar and also the use of the "Critical Path Method" (CPM) a mathematical technique for management of difficult projects, drives project management systems deeper with developments in scientific approaches.

In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was created to professionalize and modernize through formalizing project management tools and techniques.

Additionally, today with swift scientific development, booming IT industries, as well as globalization, project management solutions are in demand throughout the world as a fundamental force to accomplish projects within a particular scope, time, and within cost constraints.

Management tasks, where few individuals use to manage and remember before; now needs advance systems and methodological approaches for group decision-making as well as planning implementation.

At present ultra advanced project management systems deliver progressive solutions and its management process possesses the latest tools and techniques, systems and schemes with scientific evidences and statistical explanations.