2011
Project Management
Term Paper
Jenna Volk
Production Operations Management 2011
Project Management
Term Paper
Jenna Volk
Production Operations Management

Project Management

“Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan.”

* K. Tate

Project management, in the modern sense, began in the early 1950s, although it has its roots much further back in the latter years of the 19th century. The need for project management was driven by businesses that realized the benefits of organizing work around projects and the critical need to communicate and coordinate work across departments and professions. The government, military and corporate world have now adopted this practice.
History
In the 19th century, the rising complexities of the business world showed how project management evolved from management principles. In this country, the first large organization was the transcontinental railroad, which began construction in the early 1870s. Suddenly, business leaders found themselves faced with the intimidating task of organizing the manual labor of thousands of workers and the manufacturing and assembly of unprecedented quantities of raw material.
Near the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor (1856–1915) began his detailed studies of work. He applied scientific reasoning to work by showing that labor can be analyzed and improved by focusing on its elementary parts. He applied his thinking to tasks found in steel mills, such as shoveling sand and lifting and moving parts. Before then, the only way to improve productivity was to demand harder and longer hours from workers.
Taylor's associate, Henry Gantt (1861–1919), studied in great detail the order of operations in work. His studies of management focused on Navy ship construction during WWI. His Gantt charts, complete with