A Brief History of Project Management: Key Events and Milestones
By George NWOGU | BIZVILLE PROJECT MANAGEMENT Limited
Dear Industry Colleagues and Partners,
Image by George NWOGU
Pre-history of Project Management (Before 1900)
- Project management was largely informal, based on intuition and experience, with significant projects like the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Great Wall of China serving as early examples.
Early Development (1900–1950)
- Henry Gantt introduced the Gantt Chart, a pivotal scheduling tool.
- Henri Fayol outlined the five functions of management, which inform project management principles.
- The American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) was established in 1956, contributing to the formalization of project costing techniques.
Modern Project Management (1950-Present)
- The Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) were developed to manage complex projects.
- The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) was introduced to help organize tasks.
- The Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded in 1969, establishing project management as a recognized profession.
Additional Key Events and Milestones
- 1961: First edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) published.
- 1969: The PMI was established, becoming a central organization in project management standards.
- 1975: Introduction of the Construction Extension to the PMBOK, focusing on construction project management best practices.
- 1984: The Theory of Constraints (TOC) introduced by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, emphasizing effective resource management and bottleneck reduction in projects.
- 1987: Launch of the first Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam by PMI.
- 1989: Development of PRINCE (Projects in Controlled Environments) by the UK government for IT project management.
- 1996: Emergence of Agile project management methodologies, catalyzed by the Agile Manifesto, which reshaped software development project management.
- 2000: IPMA released the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB), standardizing project management competencies internationally.
- 2009: PMI introduced the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification for entry-level project managers.
- 2012: PMI’s Pulse of the Profession Report emphasized strategic project management’s role in organizational success.
- 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote and virtual project management tools.
These milestones collectively illustrate the evolution of project management into a structured discipline. They emphasize the critical role played by organizations like AACEI, which was among the first to formalize practices in the field.
Sources:
1. Project Management Institute (PMI) — [www.pmi.org](https://www.pmi.org)
2. AACE International — [www.aacei.org](https://www.aacei.org)
3. Agile Alliance — [www.agilealliance.org](https://www.agilealliance.org)
4. IPMA — [www.ipma.world](https://www.ipma.world)
5. PRINCE2 — [www.axelos.com](https://www.axelos.com)
COO, BIZVILLE PROJECT MANAGEMENT Limited
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