History of Project Management Amit Chaudhary ( )

Transcription

1 1 1. Introduction The first part of the report identifies, analyzes and summarizes changes that have occurred in Project Management from late 1960s to present, covering aspects such as tools, methodologies, techniques, teams, competency. The second part of the report analyzes as to why such changes took place.

2 2 2. Changes in Project Management Project management has existed for hundreds of years, dating back to the time when ancient marvels like the Egyptian Pyramids were constructed. Large projects like these were managed and delivered in the past but without adhering to any particular methodology or technique. As projects started getting more complex and critical (time and budget) there were needs to come up with methodologies and techniques that would help carry out a project successfully. The very first tool that aided in planning and controlling projects was developed in the 1900s during Word War I. Henry Gantt developed Gantt Charts that provided a visual representation of the timeline of a project. Major breakthroughs in project management occurred in the late 1950s. There have been numerous new techniques that have been adopted to aid project management since then. The major changes that have come about since then are documented below. 2.1 Changes during 1960s PERT (1958) was developed by the U.S. Navy Special Projects Office in association with the consultancy firm of Booz Allen and Hamilton to manage the Polaris project. The success of the Polaris Submarine project helped to establish PERT in the 1960's as a planning tool within many large corporations (Rory Burke 2001, p. 16). In 1962, PERT/COST was introduced by American Department of Defense, adding cost management in addition to time management. PERT/Cost related the value of physical work performed against the cost actuals to determine the utility and benefits from the funds spent (Fleming and Koppelman, 1998). However, DoD discarded PERT/COST by 1965, because of its inflexibility. As project management started being recognized as a job for the first time in the 1960s, various Project Management Bodies were formed worldwide. IMPA started in

3 3 1965, as a forum for the exchange of experience amongst project managers of international projects. (IPMA Certification Yearbook 2001, p. 7). In 1969, PMI was formed in order to advance the practice, science and profession of project management (PMI: Who We Are and What We Do). Later, all such bodies released their own Body of Knowledge, which comprised of all the knowledge that was collected and built up regarding various tools and techniques from the past experiences. 2.2 Changes during 1970s During 1960s project management was still restricted in the fields of construction, aerospace and defense. In the 1970s, project management became part of almost every industry. Although, DoD discarded PERT/COST (earned value method) in 1965, PERT/COST and techniques originally developed with it (Word Breakdown Structure and Organizational Breakdown Structure) were being used extensively. The investigation and adoption of various organizational forms to undertake projects (Stretton 1993, p. 11). Various matrix organization structures were introduced to understand about the organizational forms. A lot of literature work was produced in 1970s. Various papers were published on the definition of project management. A lot of How-To-s of Project Management were also documented which were based mostly on past experiences. This literature gave rise to many issues in the world of Project Management a special concern over Conflict Management was raised in this document. During the decade a systems approach was created which addressed technique that could carry out the tasks of Project Management in different industries. As IT grew during the time, some project management softwares were available which ran on Mainframe computers using punch cards and hence were not robust and readily available. With the advancement in information technology, IT project

4 4 managers came into existence, as Lock (2007) mentions However, the spread of IT brought another, different kind of project manager on the scene. These were the IT project managers: people who had no project planning or scheduling experience and no interest or desire to learn those methods. They possessed instead the technical and mental skills needed to lead teams developing IT projects. 2.3 Changes During the 1980s 1980s saw a lot of changes in the methodologies, tools and techniques of project management. Various bodies came out with BoK (guides) for Project Management which are discussed below. In 1981, the Ethics, Standards and Accreditation (ESA) project was started by PMI to pursue project management in a systematic manner. The report from ESA was accepted by PMI in The ESA report added more functions to project management than the two that already existed (time and cost) quality, scope, human resources and communication. The first PMBoK was published in 1987 by PMI. The BoK added more functions (project contract/procurement management, risk management) to project management now known as knowledge areas. PMBOK brought forward project management as a structured approach as Stretton (1993) mentions The PMBOK also represents one of the more significant efforts to represent project management as a structured discipline and approach, rather than as a collection of tools and techniques. Prior to the 80s more attention was given to the execution of the project and less or no importance was given to the project requirements or risks (knows as the front ends). In 1980s risks were evaluated to minimize risks. Factors like feasibility study were introduced into project management. Feasibility study was more inclined to IT projects.

5 5 During the 1980s, project management change, or initiating and achieving a change. became a basis for responding to a Increased focus on factors external to the project Cleland and Gareis (2006, p. 24-4). More importance was given to the external factors that affected the project, from stakeholders to environmental concerns. This helped the project managers to resolve issues that came up because of valid conflicts between the various stakeholders. 1984, also saw the rise of certification programs for project managers. PMI conducted its first exam for certifying project manager, knows as the PMP (Project Management Professional) certification. Later, IMPA came up with their own certification. In late 1980s there were some significant developments in the field of software or IT project management. In 1987 CMM (Capability Maturity Model) for software process was introduced. Paulk, Weber and Chrissis (1997) describe CMM as CMM presents sets of recommended practices in a number of key process areas that have been shown to enhance software process capability. It provides software organizations with guidance on how to gain control of their processes for developing and maintaining software and how to evolve toward a culture of software engineering and management excellence. In 1988, Spiral development model was introduced against the Waterfall introduced earlier. The Spiral model, affected projects mainly from the ITC (Information Technology and Communication) sector. Project managers had to change their plans to fit the spiral model accordingly. In his report, Dr. Dombkins (2008, p. 6), refers to spiral development as a fundamental change in the development strategy of ICT. 2.4 Changes during the 1990s With major advanced in technology, 1990s saw a lot of changes in project management. The availability of the Personal Computer made a significant difference in project management during this decade.

6 6 Development of standards and certification for project management has been a driving force within the project management profession throughout the 1990 s Crawford (2000). Various competency standards were released during this decade and the newer versions of BoK were released. In 1991, ACAT Framework was developed which provided categorization of the projects based on the risks. The substantial advance in visualization of the technical aspect of the project cycle, and the role of system engineering, is gained by understanding the comprehensive Vee chart (Forsberg and Mooz, 1991). NASA introduced Vee chart in 1995, these charts allow to simplify complex systems in systems development. These charts concentrated on the aspects of the project definition, integration and validation. The Vee chart redefined the strategy for ICT projects. As project management moved from certainty to uncertainty and with many complex projects emerging with uncertainty, a strategy to handle such projects was required. In 1996, Wave Planning was introduced which integrated traditional and complex project management to handle such projects. This decade also saw the appearance of project management competency standards. The first ever competency standards came in 1995 AIPM Standards. IPMA followed in 1997 with ICB (IPMA Competency Baseline) 1.0 in 1997, and ICB 2.0 in PRINCE 2 was introduced in early 1990s. Bentley (2002) describes PRINCE 2 as A structured project management method based on the experience of scores of other project managers who have contributed, some from their mistakes or omissions, others from their success.... The method should be tailored to suite the size, importance and environment of the project. PRINCE 2 incorporated business cases into project managements for the first time, which made them tailored made for the project.

7 7 Between 1993 and 1997 various contracting methods were introduced which include DCM Contracts, Governance Contracting and SMART Contracting. Project management became more efficient in the 1990s with desktop computer or PCs being available to the project managers. Project managers could use various project management software on their own PC. Networks allowed for faster communication and printers were a great help to produce complex charts in no time. Generating matrix and project schedules was no more a difficult task. Schedules could be generated and changed immediately to keep up with changes in the project, cutting down time consumption considerably. In spite of these developments, Lock (2007) makes a very interesting observation, which cannot be ignored However, productivity did not match this growth in technology itself than in the work that it was intended to manage.... In other words, managers had to learn to become 'computer literate' and be far less dependent on IT experts. 2.5 Changes after 2000 With a large number of uncertain projects emerging, in 2000, Quality at Entry was designed to restrict highly uncertain projects from proceeding. Gateway was designed to restrict continuation of uncertain projects during the project lifecycle. PMBoK 3 and ICB 3.0 were released in 2000 and 2007 respectively. A new standard known as Complex Project Management Standard was released in Also, the first complex project management masters course was introduced in 2008, which showed that we have moved from Modern Project Management to Complex Project Management. PMI also introduced a project management standard in There were many other competency standards released between CMM released in 1987 was revised and renamed to CMM-I (Capability Maturity Model Integrated). Various robust project management tools like Microsoft Project 2000 and 2007 were introduced during this time. Small organizations have also started using web based open source project management tools, which are available for free, like DotProject.

8 8 3. Analysing the changes in Project Management Information Technology As we have seen, project management has evolved immensely from when it started in It would not be wrong to conclude that project management is not what it used to be 50 years ago. The nature of projects, technology, costs, uncertainty, stakeholders, contracting, economy has changed; demanding change in the project management methodologies. Project management started out with a very basic concept of successful execution of project, which implied execution of the project within the deadline and budget. Now, project management includes managing resources, risks, contracts, and scope for the successful execution of the project. Although project management started out from the field of construction, aerospace and defense, it has now become more important in Information Technology and Information Management projects. Information Technology project management has changed dramatically like in any project management of any other field. There are various factors that have affected the nature of the IT projects rate of change of technology, outsourcing, complexity, business changes. According to a survey (White and Fortune, 2002), the number of people carrying out project management jobs in the Information Technology outnumbered the number from any other field. In spite of the vast experience of various organizations in the IT sector, the failure rate of projects in the sector is very high. Thus, IT has been the main source of innovation in project management techniques in the last two decades as there people are constantly trying to deliver IT projects with a higher success rate. IT project management started with a very simple approach in 1969 using the waterfall model. In my opinion, as projects became a little complex and requirements became more obscured there was need of prototyping, so that project could be

9 9 validated at each step. Hence, Spiral Development was introduced in When projects became very complex, which made them difficult to understand during a systems development, the Vee model was introduced for better understanding and execution, which was considered to be an extension of the waterfall model. CMM was introduced in 1987, mainly for software development. I think, this was introduced because various IT projects were failing during the time, and there were no classifications for the software development organizations. After the development of CMM, organizations were classified into different levels, which I suppose, helped in the assignment of project to capable organizations. In conventional projects, like in construction the project managers job was to deliver the product. Once the construction was over, the project was completed. With IT projects it was always an ongoing process. Even after the implementation or deployment of the project there were maintenance issues like bug fixing or new changes that required Project Management. This is why I think, various contract strategies came into existence in the 1980s and 1990s. IT project have become very time critical, there is always a danger of the technology a project is based on becoming obsolete if the a scheduled turn around is not achieved. There are various other risks involved in an IT project including business cases rendered useless, simply because someone else designed something better and faster. With so many risks involved, various risk management strategies have had to be implemented in project management. Various strategies that evaluated the project based on the risks involved like Quality at Entry, Gateway and ACAT were thus proposed. Changing organizational structures have also forced a change in the way project management was carried out. Initially, organization structure started with only one project site. Later, organizations with multiple sites came into picture and nowadays, most IT companies outsource their positions to people from another country, thousands of miles away, working in a time-zone and with many cultural difference. Managing such a diverse work force and producing results is a very difficult task. To

10 History of Project Management 10 Amit Chaudhary ( ) cater to these needs various changes in project management have been developed like Cultural Differences, Network Organizations and Connective Planning. Communication is the key in such projects. High speed Internet and state of the art PCs have made outsourcing possible in the field of IT. Up till early 1980s, project management tools were not present and hence, scheduling, providing charts, matrixes, etc. took up a long time. During 1990s everybody had a PC of their own and various project management tools were readily available. Project Managers have been using tools such as Microsoft Project for the past few years. There is an inclination towards web-based project management tools in organizations, which allows easy access to information from multiple sites of organizations. PCs have definitely helped project management save time, but what it yet to be seen how systems with artificial intelligence could help in project management.

11 History of Project Management 11 Amit Chaudhary ( ) 4. Conclusion We have seen in the report that there have been numerous changes in project management tools, techniques and methodologies. The changes in project management have been very rapid since between 1980 and It seems that there is period of stability now, where there is innovation, but on a smaller scale. Most of the bodies now are more inclined to documenting and standardizing.

12 History of Project Management 12 Amit Chaudhary ( ) References IPMA Certification Yearbook, 2001, IPMA PMI: Who We are and What We do, Alan Stretton, 1993, 'A Short History of Modern Project Management', PM World Today, Vol. IX, Issue X, October 2007 Colin Bentley, 2002, PRINCE 2: a practical handbook, 2nd Edn, Butterworth- Heinemann Dr. David Dombkins, 2008, 'Redefining Our Profession Part 2: The History and Future of Project Management', PM World Today, Vol. XI, Issue II, February 2009 David L. Cleland, Roland Gareis, 2006, Global Project Management Handbook, 2nd edn, McGraw-Hill Professional Dennis Lock, 2007, Project Management, 9th Edn, Gower Publishing, Ltd. Diana White, Joyce Fortune, 2001, 'Current practice in project management - an emperical study', International Journal of Project Management, Vol 20, 2007 Kevin Forsberg and Harold Mooz, 2001, The Relationship of System Engineering to the Project Cycle Lynn Crawford, 2001, Project Management Competence for the New Millenium, Proceedings of 15th World Congress on Project Management, London, England, IPMA Quentin W. Fleming and Joel M. Koppelman, 1998, 'Earned Value Project Management: A Powerful Tool for Software Projects', CROSSTALK The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, July 1988 Rory Burke, 2001, PROJECT MANAGEMENT Planning and Control Techniques, 3rd Edn, John Wiley & Sons LTD, New York Mark C. Paulk, Charles V. Weber, and Mary Beth Chrissis, 1997, The Capability Maturity Model for Software