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.
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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.
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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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