Project Management: Shifting People and Goals Into Gear

Project Management, as we know it, began to gain ground around the beginning of the 1960s. At this time industrial and business organizations were starting to recognize there were benefits associated with arranging work into separate projects. In doing this, work could be done by multiple departments, working as a cohesive whole. It was this realization that led to project management gaining widespread acceptance.

Towards the end of the 1800s, due to increasing complexity within the world of business, modern management developed more fully from existing management principles. Major players in important decision making were huge government projects. Vast, complicated projects necessitated hiring thousands of employees, sourcing materials in bulk and finding or making machinery and equipment on a large scale.

Business organizations wanted to apply some powerful techniques so that the labor, material, and machinery were effectively used to give maximum results. In early 20th century, Frederick Taylor analyzed work patterns and behavior and found out that better methods can increase the productivity considerably. This type of analysis is now known as time and motion study. Time and motion can suggest better methods to reduce labor and material costs. Taylor was dubbed the “father of scientific management”.

Henry Gantt first introduced the world to his charts in the 1920’s. After intensive study of the work process and its organization, he developed the chart which was later named after him. These charts followed the progress of work in large projects, showing time schedules along with dependencies between tasks. This allowed completion of projects to become easier. In effect, the charts have been used since their introduction.

Taylor, Gantt, and a many notable others helped evolve management into a distinct business function that requires study and discipline. After a few decades, marketing approaches, industrial psychology, and human relations became the integral parts of business management. In the mid-20th century, PERT charts and Critical Paths Methods were introduced. Seeing their usefulness, many organizations, including the military, began to use these techniques. They are popular even now.

Today’s project management is different from what it used to be in the beginning. Nowadays, project management is considered as a human being, which means that for a business to survive and prosper every functional part of the being should work in tandem and coordination towards achieving specific objectives. Over the time project management evolved into the current modern forms that is now prevailing in the world. The project manager manages the project and is responsible for its completion. A project manager, integrates various resources into a team, organizes and coordinates the whole project in order to get the best possible results in terms of productivity and profits. And finally the project manager delivers the completed project on time and within budgets.

Also Read