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Current Articles |
Project Management Practices: Changing the World© 2003, Lewis R. Ireland All Rights Reserved.Project management, in some form, has been around for centuries. It was not until the middle of the 20th century that the practice was codified in literature and a definite focus made on how to make a good thing better. Documenting these concepts and practices has permitted wider distribution and improvement when the former concepts and practices were not maintaining pace with a rapidly growing technological world. Project management may be viewed through the artifacts that resulted from tremendously difficult tasks. The Pyramids of Giza near Cairo, Egypt, were projects that built a necropolis for the pharaohs dating back more than 5000 years. Archeologists report in the November 1998 issue of National Geographic Magazine there is evidence of a highly sophisticated organization that designed and built these structures. This organization consisted of managers, engineers, workers, and support elements focused on a single goal of constructing a place for their pharaoh in the after life. Surely, some of the early forms of project management were used here.China, noted for its Great Wall and the lesser-known Grand Canal, provides artifacts that could have only been constructed by using project management techniques. Started during the Zhou Dynasty in the 7th century BC, the original Great Wall was approximately 5,000 kilometers in length, with the purpose of keeping foreign invaders out of China. In 221 BC, the Qin Dynasty started a project to extend the Great Wall another 1,000 kilometers. As late as 1368, a 200-year project for restoration of the Great Wall was started. Today, this magnificent achievement stands as a symbol of national treasure. Rather than meeting its original purpose to keep foreigners out of China, it attracts thousands of tourists each year. China’s lesser-known Grand Canal is 1,745 kilometers long with 24 locks and 60 bridges. The canal was started during the Wu Dynasty in 486 BC and extended during the Qi Dynasty from 605 to 610 AD. Although it is obvious that the canal was created using manual labor to excavate the channels and build the locks, project management techniques were required to plan, survey, design, and direct the work efforts. The results of these projects provide China with a vital avenue for commerce. Current plans are to extend this canal to more than 3,500 kilometers in the near future. The Panama Canal Project, started by the French and completed by the U.S., spanned more than 44 years from its conception to completion. The French effort failed partly because of the environment and an underestimate of the difficulties associated with carving a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama. Disease took a heavy toll on the work force and the volume of dirt to be moved was not well understood. The U.S. undertook the project from the French in the early 1900s and spent $352 million to complete the project on August 15, 1914. The result of this project was time and money savings for shipborne transport of people and materials between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Project management techniques were used to schedule work and estimate costs associated with the relocation of large volumes of dirt from such areas as the Culebra Cut where 9,000 workers were employed at the height of effort. One may search history books and the Internet to find many examples of project or the artifacts of projects where it is apparent that project management techniques had to be used to accomplish the work. Transportation systems around the world provide excellent examples of railroads, highways, and waterways that were created by some form of project management. National infrastructure through buildings, memorials, and monuments provide artifacts that could only be constructed through projects are more examples. Project management, the system of choice by many organizations to achieve change, was first formally documented in the 1950s by the U.S. military. The Air Force authored a series of instructions on “program management” – the government’s term for project management. In 1956, the Navy’s need for scheduling techniques resulted in PERT, or Program Evaluation Review Technique, which included a three-estimate approach to scheduling project work. At about the same time in 1956, du Pont produced a scheduling system called CPM, or Critical Path Method. Other scheduling techniques have been developed and refined that still use some part of PERT or CPM. Project management techniques have been documented in literature over the past 50 years and most recently have defined the current project management practices in books, journals, and proceedings since 1980. This past 20 plus years have seen an emergence of examples and models for good project management practices that at any time will show 1,200 to 1,500 books in print on the subject. The project management discipline has expanded from the traditional construction industry to a host of industries that include banking, pharmaceutical, wholesale food, financial services, medicine, and information technology. In summary, project management in some form has been used for more than 5,000 years to deliver benefits to society and create change to the manner in which people do things. Artifacts from antiquity are evidence of the use of project management techniques, as we define them today, in some form to create products and services. The evolution of project management increased over time, but most recently when individuals and organizations documented the practices in literature. Since the 1950s, project management has demonstrated growth into an acknowledged discipline that supports technology and is current with the demands of organizations for a system that can deliver efficient and effective products and services. Born in antiquity with more than 5,000 years of development, project management has evolved to be the most favored system for effecting change in an organization. Project management has reached several plateaus and has evolved to meet new demands of society. It continues to grow to deliver the promise of better products and services through the effective use of resources. Project management’s base in antiquity has given it a true foundation for the present and future. Note: Developed from the concepts and ideas espoused by Dr. David I. Cleland, Professor Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh. © Lew Ireland 2003 Author: Lew Ireland is an executive project management consultant, who now resides in Tennessee. He is a Fellow of the Project Management Institute and served as that organization's President and Chair in 1998. Currently, he serves as the President of asapm.
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