Brief history of Project Management

Some days ago, I went for a walk in Segovia, my native town, and I saw, as many times before, the great roman aqueduct of Segovia. But this time, probably because I was thinking about my project, I realised how difficult it should have been to build it, without any of the moderns tools about project management.

But not only the aqueduct, but also the pyramids of Egypt, the great wall of China and many more monuments, so many that I have the time to write them in one life. And they did it with the tools of project management, didn’t they? Well, probably they used some tools, and maybe those tools were not so different from those used today. For sure, there was the figure of the project leader. Not so called, but he had the same responsibilities than the modern ones. And in his head, he had a schedule, a PBS, etc.

After a little research, I found that project management started in the 1900’s. Before, it was handled by the master architects or buildings, like Giovannino de’ Dolci, the master architect of the Sistine Chapel (I mention him because everyone knows who painted it, but no who built it) After the industrial revolution, all the projects became more complex and difficult, and project management ceased to be considered as a secondary discipline, and started to have a bigger role. Project management was developed from the fields of civil construction, engineering and defense. Some of the fathers of these discipline in those were Henry Gantt, Henri Fayol or Frederick Winslow Taylor. Some of the tools that they created, like the Gantt Chart or the WBS, are still in use.

During the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, other famous tools like the Critical Path Method or the PERT were developed. In this moment, PM was already considered seriously. For instance, the founding of the International Project Management Association in 1967 or  the Project Management Institute in 1969 proved that these field was becoming very important, critical for many companies and governments.

It is impossible to summary the whole history in just one post, but at least I hope that you have a little idea of the process that this discipline had, in order to become what it is now. Anyway, from my point of view, there is one thing that has not change: the human factor. Even if someone had the more powerful tools in the world, without common sense and implication nothing will work!
For further reading: http://home.gwu.edu/~kwak/PM_History.pdf

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