Project management is a discipline planning, organization, protection and management of resources to achieve specific objectives. The project is a temporary effort with a definite beginning and end (usually time-limited, and often limit funding or products). First undertaken to achieve the unique goals and objectives and second in general, bring a positive change or added value. The temporary nature of projects is in contrast to none (or functions) and third one which are recurrent, persistent or semi-permanently producing functional products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often very different, and therefore requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.
The main challenge of project management is to achieve all the objectives of the project, and objectives, while respecting the limitations preconceived. Typical constraints are scope, time and budget. Secondary and more ambitious-challenge is to optimize and integrate the inputs necessary to meet defined objectives.
Project management has been practiced since the beginning of civilization. Until 1900, construction projects are generally managed by creative architects, engineers and builders themselves, each other, such as Vitruvius (1st century BC), Christopher Wren (1632-1723), Thomas Telford (1757 -1834) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859). In 1950, organizations have begun to systematically apply project management tools and techniques of complex technical projects.
Henry Gantt (1861-1919), father of technical planning and control.
As the discipline of project management, developed from various application areas, including construction, engineering, defense and industrial activity. Two ancestors of project management are Henry Gantt, called the father of the technical planning and control, which is famous for his use of the Gantt chart as a tool for project management. and Henri Fayol for his creation of five management functions that are the foundation of all knowledge related to project management and program Both Gantt and Fayol were the students of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theories of scientific management. His work is the precursor of the modern tools of project management, including task structure (WBS) and resource allocation.
1950 began the modern era of project management in which nuclear technology come together in perfect cooperation. Project management has been recognized as a separate discipline arising from the model engineering management discipline. In the United States before 1950 will be handled on a case by case basis, using mostly Gantt Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two of the project plan was developed mathematics. “Critical Path Method” (CPM) was developed as a joint venture of DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. And the “technical assessment and review of the program” or reticular, developed at Booz Allen Hamilton as part of the U.S. Navy (in collaboration with Lockheed Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program these mathematical techniques quickly spread to many private companies.
PERT network diagram of seven-month project with five milestones
At the same time, such as project planning models have been developed, the technology to estimate project costs, cost management, and engineering economics was evolving, with the pioneering work by Hans Lang and others. In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International, the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was formed by early practitioners of project management and related specialties planning and scheduling, cost estimating and cost / schedule control (project control). AACE has continued its pioneering work in 2006 and published the first integrated process for managing portfolios, programs and projects (Framework Total Cost Management).
The International Project Management Association (IPMA), founded in Europe in 1967 as a combination of several national associations in project management. IPMA maintains its federal structure today, and now has member associations in all continents except Antarctica. IPMA offers four levels of certification program based on the IPMA Competence basis (ICB). ICB covers technical, contextual and behavioral skills.
In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI), based in the United States. PMI publishes a guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), which describes the project management practices that are common to “most projects, most of the time.” PMI also offers several certifications.
