CHAPTER TWO:

PROJECT MANAGEMENT GROWTH:

CONCEPTS AND DEFNITIONS

Teferi D (PhD),
TechnoLink College
December 2022
 Recap

– Projects are all about change. Pushing

business forward.

– Development of new, more effective project

management styles is key for ensuring
future project’s success.
 Introduction
• The first projects
– Of course, the first real projects
happened thousands of years ago.
– And we’ll probably never know which of our
ancestors first decided to build a house or
plough fields.
– However, the results of notable ancient
projects can be seen today including the great
wall of China and the Pyramids.
• At those stage in time, project management
can’t really be called management.
• It was closer to a dictatorship. Management was a loose
term. Little attention was paid to the numbers of
severe injuries occurring in the process, and presumably
zero attention to how motivated the workers were.
• So long as it was eventually achieved, hopefully in the
lifetime of the Pharaoh, King, or Emperor, the project
was a success.
• Things stayed this way for thousands of years.
• Project management has been practiced for thousands of
years dating back to the Egyptian epoch, but it was in the
mid-1950s that organizations commenced applying
formal project management tools and techniques to
complex projects.
– The growth and acceptance of project management has
changed significantly over the past millennia, and these
changes are expected to continue well into the future
especially in the area of multinational project management.

• It is interesting to trace the evolution and growth of

project management from the early days of systems
management to what is called “modern project
management.”
General System Management
• This is a management approach that attempts
to integrate and unify scientific information
across many fields of knowledge.
– Systems theory attempts to solve problems by
looking at the total picture, rather than through an
analysis of the individual components.
– Unfortunately, the practitioners require years of
study and analysis before implementation. General
systems theory is still being taught in graduate
programs.
• Thus, general systems theory implies the creation of a
management technique that is able to cut across
many organizational disciplines—finance,
manufacturing, engineering, marketing, and so on—
while still carrying out the functions of management.
– This technique has come to be called systems
management, project management, or matrix
management (the terms are used
interchangeably).

• Today, project management is viewed as

applied systems management.
• The history of project management is
broken into four stages of advancement.

1945–1960
1960–1985
1985–2009
Stage I: Period to 1958/60
• A quick look reveals that it’s a fairly brief all
of human history prior to 1958.

• During the 1940s, line managers used the

concept of over-the-fence management
to manage projects.
• Over-the-fence management
– Each line manager would perform the work
necessitated by his line organization and, when
completed, would throw the "ball" over the
fence in hopes that someone would catch it.
• Once the ball was thrown over the fence, the line
managers would wash their hands of any
responsibility for the project because the ball was no
longer in their yard.
– If a project failed, blame was placed on whom
had the ball at that time
The problem with over-the-fence management
• The investor had no single contact point
for questions.
– Customers or contractors who wanted
firsthand information had to seek out the
manager in possession of the ball (It takes their
precious time).
– For small projects, this was easy. But as
projects grew in size and complexity, this
became more difficult.
• This was clearly seen just after WW-II when the
United States entered into the Cold War.
– Race to build weapons of mass destruction made it clear
that the traditional use of over-the-fence management
would not be acceptable to the Department of Defense
(DoD) for projects such as the B52 Bomber, the
Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, and the
Polaris Submarine. The government wanted a single
point of contact, namely, a project manager who had
total accountability through all project phases.
– The use of project management was then mandated for
some of the smaller weapon systems such as jet
fighters and tanks.
Selected Key Advancements:
– Gantt Chart: Introduced in the beginning of the
1900s, Gantt charts allowed project leadership to see
relationships and project end dates.

– Critical Path Method (CPM): Using CPM, project

leaders plan out the longest-duration path to estimate
the
project’s duration.

– Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT): Another

tool often used to manage projects, it was developed for
use in such projects as the Polaris project and the space
program.
Stage 2: 1958 to 1979

• Most historians agree the modern

project management era began around
this time.

• In 1965, Europe’s overarching project management body,

the International Project Management Association
(IPMA), was founded.

• Shortly afterwards, in 1969, the Project Management

Institute was founded in North America.
• The growth of project management has
come about more through necessity than
through desire.
– Between the middle and late 1960s, more
executives began searching for new
management techniques and organizational
structures that could be quickly adapted to a
changing environment.
• Companies that have complex tasks and that also
operate in a dynamic environment find project
management mandatory.
– Such industries would include aerospace, defense,
construction, high-technology engineering, computers, and
electronic instrumentation.

• Other than aerospace, defense, and construction, the

majority of the companies in the 1960s maintained
an informal method for managing projects.
– In informal project management, the projects were handled on
an informal basis whereby the authority of the project
manager was minimized. Most projects were handled by
functional managers and stayed in one or two functional lines
• By 1970 and early 1980s, more companies departed from
informal project management and restructured to formalize the
project management process, mainly because the size and
complexity of their activities had grown to a point where they
were unmanageable within the current structure.
• The following five questions help determine whether formal project
management is necessary:
– Are the jobs complex?
– Are there dynamic environmental considerations?
– Are the constraints tight?
– Are there several activities to be integrated?
– Are there several functional boundaries to be crossed?
• If any of these questions are answered yes, then some form of
formalized project management may be necessary.
• Table below identify two major variables that
executives consider with regard to organizational
restructuring.

• The moral here is that not all industries need project

management, and executives must determine
whether there is an actual need before making a
commitment.
– Several industries with simple tasks, whether in a static or
a dynamic environment, do not need project management.
– Manufacturing industries with slowly changing technology do
not need project management
Selected Key Advancements:
– Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Another
indispensable tool, the WBS is a step-by-step plan to
achieving the project objectives. Its use was
mandated for government projects over a certain size,
which likely led to its popularization.
– Iterative Project Planning: A practice recognizable to
any modern software development team, iterative
planning and development was used in some
projects, for example, in the space program’s Project
Mercury.
– Material Requirements Planning (MRP) were
also introduced.
Stage 3: 1980 to 1994
– The 1980s and 1990s are characterised by the
revolutionary development in the information
management sector with the introduction of the
personal computer (PC) and associated
computer communications networking facilities.
– During this period low cost project
management software for PCs became widely
available that made project management
techniques more easily accessible.
– In 1981, the Project Management Institute
released the Ethics, Standards, and
Accreditation project report. It offered the first
few project management process groups.
– In 1986, PMI would go on to issue an
expanded version in the first edition of the
PMBOK in an international journal, the Project
Management Journal.
Selected Key Advancements:
• Risk Management: In 1987, a new version of the PMBOK first introduced
the idea of managing risk as a business process and knowledge area.
Focus on this area was prompted by the Challenger disaster and its design
project failure.

• Widespread Use of PM Software: Large, mainframe computers were

replaced by smaller personal models. With the help of powerful
software, increasingly sophisticated techniques became common project
management practices.

• Certification Programs for PM: The first certification test for project
management was held by the PMI in 1984. Soon after, more stringent
certifications were introduced internationally. Management science is
formally recognized as a separate discipline, including sub-disciplines
like program management.
Stage 4: 1995 to Present
– The modern age is defined by the Internet. The
access and connectivity it allows have transformed
methods for organizing and performing work. The
project manager role is filled by a project
management professional, a career specialist.

– implementing project management was a

necessity, not a choice.
• The question was not how to implement project
management, but how fast could it be done?
Selected Key Advancements:
• Agile Methodologies: Originally developed for software development, Agile
methods emphasize collaboration and reiterative processes. Projects run
using Agile methods are self-directed and deliver working products quickly.
– Agile a method of project management, used especially for software development, that
is characterized by the division of tasks into short phases of work and
frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans.

• Remote Work: Recently, remote work allowed a significant increase in the work-
from-home rate. Before that, it played an important role in off-shoring tech
work beyond local borders. In many ways, team location is no longer a
constraint.

• Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM): CCPM is a refinement of the

ubiquitous CPM. Where CPM did not take resources into account, CCPM
allows project managers to consider their availability.

• Project Management Degrees: In addition to professional certifications, some

universities now offer bachelor’s degrees in project management.
END