Page 22 - Global Project Management Handbook

1-4 STATE OF THE ART OF GLOBAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

In the early 1970s it was stated in the project management community that “project man-
agement is the accidental profession.” This statement has been quoted many times since,
with all the implications that a discovery had been made and a new profession had been
defined in the late twentieth century. Recognition of project management as a discipline
and the use of this management approach have varied over several thousands of years.
The treatment of the subject of projects and project management in this chapter
encompasses several thousands of years where evidence exists to demonstrate that
projects were used to change and advance societies and that some form of project
management was needed to ensure favorable conversion of resources to the benefit of
these societies. The selection of examples of projects reported in this chapter is made
based on available artifacts, literature, and other evidence reflecting a high degree of
understanding and sophistication in effecting change through planned actions.
For centuries, project management has been used in some rudimentary form to create
change or deal with change in societies. Change in a positive sense is caused by the
application of management action that results in the consumption of resources to create a
desired product, service, or organizational process. Change also may be meeting uncertain
situations to identify and implement actions to obtain the most favorable outcome.
Project management, in whatever form, has been used for centuries to plan for, implement,
and meet change.
The general management discipline, although practiced in some form in antiquity,
emerged as an explicit discipline in the twentieth century. It was during this period that
concepts, philosophies, principles, processes, tools, and techniques began to appear in lit-
erature that reflects the intellectual framework found in the management of contemporary
organizations. Yet a form of general management existed in antiquity to deal with the
need to lead and organize various elements of society.
General management, often described in the context of leadership, was ubiquitous in
the past, being the medium by which changes in societies were accomplished. The great
leaders of history were “managers,” managing political organizations, countries, explo-
rations, wars, technological and social change, and so forth. The principal challenge to
these managers was the need to create change for the better or to deal with the change
that affected their societies.
It was the 1950s when project management was formally recognized as a distinct con-

tribution arising from the management discipline. Prior uses of project management had a
focus on cost, schedule, and technical performance but lacked the formal definition and
embracing of the management concepts and processes in an integrated manner. Since the
early 1950s, names and labels have been given to the elements of the project management
discipline, helping to facilitate its further development as a profession.
The vocabulary associated with project management has grown from some original
definitions The single term project has an origin that dates back several hundreds of
years. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word project was first used in the
sixteenth century. The following list presents some samples from the second edition of
the Oxford English Dictionary listed in chronological order from the year 1600 through
1916:

Year 1600 “A projecte, conteyninge the State, Order, and Manner of Governments of
the University of Cambridge. As it is now to be seen.”
Year 1601 Holland Pliny II 335: “Many other plots and projects there doe renaime of
his (Parasius’) drawing. . . .”
Year 1623 T. Scot Highw: “All our Projects of draining surrounded grounds. . . .”