(http://www.lessons-from-history.com/Level%202/History_of_PM_page.html)
The Definition of Project management
The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities to meet the requirements of the particular project. For example, the use of methodologies, project life cycles and plans, and tools like Gantt and Pert charts.
Project management knowledge and practices are best described in terms of their component processes. These processes can be placed into five process groups (initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing) and nine knowledge areas (project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communications management, project risk management and project procurement management).
The Term Project Management
The Latin word projectum means, “to throw something forwards.” The word “project” originally meant “something that comes before anything else is done”. When the word was initially adopted, it referred to a plan of something, not to the act of actually carrying this plan out. Something performed in accordance with a project was called an object. This use of “project” changed in the 1950s when several techniques for project management were introduced: with this advent the word slightly changed meaning to cover both projects and objects. However in certain projects there may still exist so called objects and object leaders, reflecting the older use of the words.
Frederick Taylor (1856–1915), also known as the father of “scientific management”, applied scientific reasoning to the industrial system in how labor can be studied and analyzed. By breaking down the work into its elementary parts he could improve productivity. This was applied across all tasks found in a factory system and industrial mills. Prior to this productivity improvements could be made only through longer hours from the work force. The approach relied upon time and motion studies to find the best method shorn of unrequired extra movements.
The Gilbreths (Frank 1868-1924 and Lillian) worked with standardization and method studies. In one example, bricklayers were observed and it was determined that no two used the same technique or set of motions . With his wife they studied the work habits of various manufacturing and clerical jobs to determine how out could be increased.
Henry Gantt (1861–1919), was an associate of Taylor, and studied in great detail the order of operations in work. He studied management techniques specifically in the field of the construction of naval ship in the First World War. As a result, he created the Gantt chart, a system of outlining the sequence and duration of all tasks in a process, reflected by task bars and milestone markers. For the past hundred years Gantt charts have remained little unchanged and are a proven analytical tool for managers. The advent of project management software has increased the popularity and usefulness of Gantt charts by adding links to task bars providing more precise dependencies between tasks. Gantt charts were used on major infrastructure projects including the Hoover Dam (1931-36) and Interstate highway system (1956).
Charles Bedaux (1886-1945) was a contributor to the field of scientific management and worked out ideas about measuring human energy which led to startling improvements in productivity. These were based on the concept of rating assessment in timing work.
Bernard Schriever (1910-2005), the architect of the US Air Force’s ballistic missile and military space program coins the term Project Management in 1954, later known as the “Father of Modern Project Management.”
Complex network diagrams called PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) charts were invented as part of the Polaris missile submarine program in 1955. Booz-Allen Hamilton worked with the U.S. Navy to create these charts and schedules.
The Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed by the DuPont corporation in 1957, to deal with a variety of tasks and numerous interactions at many points in time.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCHEDULING
by Patrick Weaver
The science of ‘scheduling’ as defined by Critical Path Analysis (CPA) will celebrate its 50th Anniversary on the 7th May 2007. In 1956/57 Kelly and Walker started developing the algorithms that became the ‘Activity-on-Arrow’ or ADM methodology for DuPont. The program they developed was trialed on plant shutdowns in 1957 and the first paper on critical path scheduling was published in 1958. The critical meeting to approve this project was held on the 7th May 1957 in Newark Delaware where DuPont and Remington Rand jointly committed US$226,400 to fund the development. This date seems the most appropriate ‘start point’ for a development process that borrowed from previous research and developments and continues to this day.
The PERT system was developed by the US military in parallel with CPM, but lagged CPM by 6 to 12 months (although the term ‘critical path’ was invented by the PERT team). Later the Precedence (PDM) methodology was published by Dr. John Fondahl in 1961 as a ‘non-computer’ alternative to CPM. Arguably, the evolution of modern project management is a direct consequence of the need to make effective use of the data generated by the schedulers in an attempt to manage and control the critical path.
Source: www.pmforum.org
Kaizen (Ky’ zen) a Japanese business philosophy is brought to the Western corporate world by Masaaki Imai In his book “Kaizen: the Key to Japan’s Competitive Success” (1986, McGraw-Hill). Imai defines it as: “a means of continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life.” The history of Kaizen starts in Japan in the 1950’s when Toyota first implements quality circles into the production process. Kaizen is influenced by Armand Feigenbaum’s book “Total Quality Control” in 1951, which details Total Quality practices. Also the influence of W. Edwards Deming (“Elementary Principles of the Statistical Control of Quality” in 1951), JM Juran (“Quality Control Handbook” in 1951), and Kauru Ishikawa all these reshape Japanese business.
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie-Mellon University develops the influential “Capability Maturity Model” for software between 1986 and 1993.
