Location:
PMKI > Project
Management History > The Development of Modern
PM.
- Origins, and trends in, modern
project management
- The development of project
management credentials
- The evolution of construction
management.
Other related sections of the PMKI:
- The history of project
controls
- Current project management
practice and the PMBOK® Guide
- The evolution of calendars
and other supporting concepts
Projects in one form or another have been undertaken for millennia:
- The ancient Egyptians constructed pyramids some 4500
years ago
- Sun Tzu wrote about planning and strategy 2500 years ago
(every battle is a project to be first won;
then fought)
- Numerous transcontinental railways were constructed
during
the 19th century, and
- Buildings of different sizes and complexity have been
erected for
as long as mankind has occupied permanent
settlements.
Click down for the origins of construction management.
However, it was only in the latter part of the 20th century people started to talk about ‘project management’. There is an important distinction to be drawn between projects: ‘a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service or result’ and ‘modern project management’ as it is embodied in the various project management associations around the world. The profession of ‘modern project management’ is a creation of these associations starting in the 1960s. During the next 50 years they developed a generally consistent view of the processes involved in ‘project management’, encoded these views into ‘Bodies of Knowledge’ (BoKs), described competent behaviors and certified knowledgeable and/or competent ‘Project Managers’ (click down for the history of PM credentials). Whilst the underlying philosophies used by modern project management are much older, the key change in this period was the melding of processes, techniques, and management philosophies into a body of knowledge (BoK), and the effective dissemination of the ideas of modern project management into the wider community.
The central theme running through the various BoKs was that project management is an integrative process that has at its core, the balancing of the ‘iron triangle’ of time, cost and quality, to produce a predefined output. All three facets must be present for a management process to be considered project management. However, as the 21st century progresses, this holistic view of the profession is starting to devolve into a series of discrete sub-disciplines using quite different methodologies and approaches; the consequences of this emerging trend remain to be seen.
During the 1960s and 70s, the catalyst for the spread of
discussions on project management and the formation of
associations to support these new ideas appears to have
been the spread of scheduling, and more importantly
professional schedulers. Arguably, the schedulers need for
a forum to discuss and develop their new discipline led
directly to the formation of the various project
management associations. Once founded, it was (and still
is) the various project management associations that led
the development of a defined and documented ‘project
management body of knowledge’. Only after the body of
knowledge was formulated, did it become possible to:
- Define project management competencies (see:
Competencies & Interpersonal Skills),
- Formally examine project management knowledge (see
below), and
- Start the process of creating a true profession of
project management
(see: PM
Training & Qualifications).
The major history papers on this site are:
- The Origins of Modern Project Management
(below)
- The Origins of Modern Management
(below)
- and three papers on project controls that can be
downloaded from the links:
- A
Brief History of Scheduling.
- The
Origins and History of Cost Engineering
- The
Origins and History of Earned Value Management.
An early summary of these papers is in the article 'A Brief History of Project Management' published in APM Project: Vol 19, Issue 11, June 2007.
PP: The Origins of Modern Project Management. This paper discusses the ways in which management and technological innovations of the 20th century interacted to encourage the establishment of project management tools (particularly scheduling), leading to the formation of PM institutes, which in turn created the profession of modern project management. Assuming the central hypothesis in this paper holds true, that: the spread of scheduling was the genesis of ‘modern project management’ ; then the 50th anniversary of the start of the process that created ‘modern project management’ was the 7th May 2007.
PP: The Origins of Modern Management. This paper discusses the ways in which management theories evolved from the beginning of the 18th century through to the 21st century and how these developments influenced the creation of 'modern project management'.
PP: Trends In Modern Project Management - Past Present & Future. The profession of ‘project management’ is largely a creation of the ‘project management associations’ starting in the 1960. During the first 40+ years, they developed a generally consistent view of the processes involved in ‘modern project management’, encoded these views into ‘Bodies of Knowledge’ (BoKs), describe competent behaviours and certified knowledgeable and/or competent ‘Project Managers’. This paper reviews the roots of project management, briefly looks at the evolution of the discipline into a profession and then attempt to predict where success for project management practitioners will lay in the future as the practice of managing projects devolves into a series of very different approaches.View the PowerPoint presentation.
Click through to out page focused on modern corporate management.
Click through to out page focused on modern project management.
The original Project Management Body of Knowledge (1987) is now available as a PDF file. Converted to PDF by Max Wideman, it's free on request. To see more click through to: http://www.maxwideman.com/PMBOK1987reborn/intro.htm. This document:
The 6th edition of the PMBOK® Guide was the last version based on the original concept. The 7th edition,published in 2021 shifted the focus from processes to business outcomes.
Blg: The PMP® Examination is 30 years old. A brief history of the linked development of PMI's PMP examination and the PMBOK® Guide.
Blg: The PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition and its consequences. The evolution of the PMBOK and the PMP exam through to the publication of the 6th Edition in Q3 2017.
Click through for our page focused on current project management credentials.
The evolution of construction and engineering management in the 18th and 19th centuries, was a major influence on the evolution or project controls, including scheduling and cost engineering. For more on the history of these disciplines see: The History of Project Controls.
One of the world's fastest construction booms was the
building of some 6000 miles (10,000 Km) of railways in the
UK at the start of the Victorian era:
- The first viable steam locomotive was built in
1812
- The first public railway opened in 1821
- The first intercity railway opened in 1830, and
- Some 6000 miles of railway had been built by the
1850s.
These papers offer an insight into the two factors needed for such a major undertaking resources and knowledge. The workforce needed to build the railways came from the canals. The abrupt halt in the canal building boom in the 1840s was caused by the opening of the first railways. The skilled workforce that had been working on the navigations simply transferred across to building railways (but kept their designation as navies). The excavation of cuttings, building or embankments and the masonry needed to build bridges is similar in both canal construction and railway construction.
The engineering know-how to build railways grew out of the
construction of increasingly sophisticated wagonways (the
first railways). The construction of horse drawn wagonways
in the UK started in the 16th century (Elizabeth I) and
continued through to the 18th century. The first steam
locomotives were used to replace horses pulling coal
wagons, and the first steam powered railways were designed
primarily for the transport of coal. The people who
engineered these railways then went on to build the first
intercity rail lines, and the rest is 'history'.
PP: The First Canal Projects Until the introduction of efficient steam-powered railways, canals were the driving force behind the industrial revolution. This paper looks at the development of canals in the UK from Roman times through to the start of the 'canal mania' in the 1790s, and seek to identify where possible the contractual and management processes used in their construction.
DP: Navigable waterways and the economy of England and Wales: 1600-1835. An academic paper by Max Satchell, Cambridge University, detailing the development of river navigations and canals from the perspective of social history.
PP: The First Railway
Projects. Transport projects in the United
Kingdom predate the industrial revolution by several
centuries. This paper looks at the building of some of the
earliest railway projects (horse drawn wagonways) to
identify where possible the contractual and management
processes used in their construction and their influence
on the industrial revolution.
DP: The Discovery and Excavation of the Willington Waggonway. An academic paper detailing the archeological excavation of the Willington Waggonway, as well as providing more detail on the construction of the early wagonway network.
Art: Myths and Legends: The Origins of Standard Gauge Railways Standard gauge is used by approximately 55% of the railways world-wide. This article looks into the origin of the standard gauge dimension and the series of coincidences that made 1435mm the 'standard' for railway construction.
DP: The development of the railway network in Britain 1825-1911. An academic paper by Leigh Shaw-Taylor and Xuesheng You, Cambridge University, detailing the development of the British railway network during the nineteenth century.
PP: Cost Overruns on Early Canal & Railway Projects. The difficulties in determining a realistic cost for a new class of project are understandable. But, transport projects in the United Kingdom (UK) predate the industrial revolution by several centuries. This suggests that in addition to the lack of empirical cost information, the problem with the cost estimates identified in The Origins and History of Cost Engineering may have been caused by various combinations of poor governance, questionable ethics, and optimism bias. The same set of issues that continue to plague many modern megaprojects.
Art: The First Dry Docks Dry docks are another class of engineering, similar to canals, that have a remarkably long history. The first modern dry dock (with a gate) was built in 1495 during the reign of Henry VII to dismantle a warship, and use the parts to build another. But, the use of enclosures and other devices to access the bottom of ships goes back to the Egyptians and Phoneticians.
Building projects
Blg: Construction project management is a very old profession. The construction of Hwaseong Fortress in Korea that was built between 1794 and 1796.
PP: Project Governance & Control, The Building of the Crystal Palace. This article discusses the governance processes used to oversight the construction of the Crystal Palace in 1851 and is subsequent sale and relocation.
DP: A
Manual for Planning and Progress for Construction
Operations (1920). The contents of this manual
were abstracted from the official completion report of the
Army Supply Base at Philadelphia, 1918 - 1919. The manual
describes the administrative charts and procedures used to
plan and control the construction works for this massive
project.
Click
through to our page focused on modern
construction management.
