This article covers the historical timeline of project management. There is a general understanding that the history of modern

project management Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...

started around 1950. Until 1900, projects were generally managed by creative

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

s themselves, among those, for example,

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

and

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...

Early civilizations

* 2570 BC

Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years ...

completed. Some records remain of how the work was managed: e.g. there were managers of each of the four faces of the pyramid, responsible for their completion ( subproject managers). * 208 BC The first major construction of the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against vario ...

17th - 19th century

(1632–1723) was a 17th-century English designer, astronomer, geometer, mathematician-physicist and

. Wren designed 55 of 87 London churches after the Great fire of London in 1666, such as

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

in 1710, as well as many secular buildings. *

(1757-1834) was a Scottish stonemason, architect and civil engineer and a road, bridge and canal builder, who managed the

Ellesmere Canal The Ellesmere Canal was a waterway in England and Wales that was planned to carry boat traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The proposal would create a link between the Port of Liverpool and the mineral industries in north east Wales an ...

and

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (; ) is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen in northeast Wales. The 18-arched stone and cast iron structure is for use by narrowboats and was complet ...

. *

(1806–1859) was a British engineer who created the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

, a series of

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

s, such as the first with a propeller, and numerous

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s and

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

20th century

* 1910s The

Gantt chart A Gantt chart is a bar chart that illustrates a schedule (project management), project schedule. It was designed and popularized by Henry Gantt around the years 1910–1915. Modern Gantt charts also show the Dependency (project management), depe ...

developed by

Henry Laurence Gantt Henry Laurence Gantt (; May 20, 1861 – November 23, 1919) was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant who is best known for his work in the development of scientific management. He created the Gantt chart in the 1910s. Gantt ...

(1861–1919) ;1950s * 1950s The

Critical path method The critical path method (CPM), or critical path analysis (CPA), is an algorithm for schedule (project management), scheduling a set of project activities. A critical path is determined by identifying the longest stretch of dependent activiti ...

(CPM) invented * 1950s The

US DoD The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...

used modern project management techniques in their

Polaris project Polaris is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. The organization's 10-year strategy is built around the understanding that human trafficking does not happen in vacuum but rather i ...

.Young-Hoon Kwak (2005). "A brief history of Project Management". In: ''The story of managing projects''. Elias G. Carayannis et al. 9eds, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. * 1956 The American Association of Cost Engineers (now

AACE International AACE International (Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was founded in 1956 by 59 cost estimators and cost engineers during the organizational meeting of the American Association of Cost Engineering at the University of New Hamp ...

) formed * 1958 The

Program Evaluation and Review Technique The program evaluation and review technique (PERT) is a statistical tool used in project management, which was designed to analyze and represent the task (project management), tasks involved in completing a given project. PERT was originally ...

(PERT) method invented ;1960s * 1969

Project Management Institute The Project Management Institute (PMI, legally Project Management Institute, Inc.) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit professional organization for project management. Overview PMI serves more than five million professionals including over 680,0 ...

(PMI) launched to promote project management profession ;1970s * 1975 PROMPT methodology (acronym for ''Project Resource Organisation Management Planning Technique'') created by Simpact Systems Ltd (source: PRINCE2 manual) * 1975 '' The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering'' by

Fred Brooks Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing development of IBM's System/360 family of mainframe computers and the ...

published ;1980s * 1984 '' The Goal'' by

Eliyahu M. Goldratt Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (; March 31, 1947 – June 11, 2011) was an Israeli business management guru. He was the originator of the Optimized Production Technique, the Theory of Constraints (TOC), the Thinking Processes (Theory of Constraints), Th ...

published * 1986 Scrum was named as a project management style in the article ''The New New Product Development Game'' by Takeuchi and Nonaka * 1987 First ''

Project Management Body of Knowledge The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a set of standard terminology and guidelines (a body of knowledge) for project management. The body of knowledge evolves over time and is presented in ''A Guide to the Project Management Body ...

Guide'' published as a white paper by PMI * 1989 PRINCE method derived from PROMPTII is published by the UK Government agency CCTA and becomes the UK standard for all government information projects ;1990s * 1996

PRINCE2 PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a structured project management method and practitioner certification programme. PRINCE2 emphasises dividing projects into manageable and controllable stages. It is adopted in many countries wor ...

published by CCTA (now

Office of Government Commerce The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) was a Government of the United Kingdom, UK Government Office established as part of HM Treasury in 2000. It was moved into the Efficiency and Reform Group of the Cabinet Office in 2010, before being closed ...

OGC) as a generic product management methodology for all UK government projects. * 1997 ''

Critical Chain Critical chain project management (CCPM) is a method of planning and managing projects that emphasizes the resources (people, equipment, physical space) required to execute project tasks. It was developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It differs fro ...

'' by

published

21st century

* 2001 AgileAlliance formed to promote "lightweight" software development projects * 2006 Total Cost Management Framework release by AACE * 2009 PRINCE2 2009 edition, compatible with other methods and more flexible in approach

References

{{reflist

External links

"A Brief History of Project Management" Infographics

Project management Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...