The History of Project Management Project management, in its modern form, began to take root only a few decades

ago. Starting in the early 1960s, businesses and other organizations began to see the benefit of organizing work around projects and to understand the critical need to communicate and integrate work across multiple departments and professions. The Early Years: Late 19th Century We can travel back further, though, to the latter half of the 19th century and to the rising complexities of thebusiness world to see how project management evolved from management principles. Large-scale government projects were the impetus for making important decisions that became management decisions. 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 daunting task of organizing the manual labor of thousands of workers and the manufacturing and assembly of unprecedented quantitiesof raw material. Early 20th Century Efforts Near the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor (18561915) 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. The inscription on Taylor's tomb in Philadelphia attests to his place in the history of management: "the father of scientific management." Taylor's associate, Henry Gantt (18611919), 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 task bars and milestone markers, outline the sequence and duration of all tasks in a process. Gantt chart diagrams proved to be such a powerful analytical tool for managers that they remained virtually unchangedfor nearly a hundred years. It wasn't until the early 1990s that link lines were added to these task barsdepicting more precise dependencies between tasks. Taylor, Gantt, and others helped evolve management into a distinct business function that requires study and discipline. In the decades leading up to WWII, marketing approaches, industrial psychology, and human relations began to take hold as integral parts of business management. Mid-20th Century Efforts After WWII, the complexities of projects and a shrinking war-time labor supply demanded new organizational structures. Complex network diagrams called PERT charts and the critical path method wereintroduced, giving managers greater control over massively engineered and extremely complex projects(such as military weapon systems with their huge variety of tasks and numerous interactions at many pointsin time).Soon these techniques spread to all types of industries as business leaders sought new managementstrategies and tools to handle their growth in a quickly changing and competitive world. In the early 1960s,general system theories of science began to be applied to business interactions. Richard Johnson, FremontKast, and James Rosenzweig described in their book The Theory and Management of Systems how amodern business is like a human organism, with a skeletal system, a muscular system, circulatory system,nervous system, and so on. Today This view of business as a human organism implies that in order for a business to survive and prosper, all of its functional parts must work in concert toward specific goals, or projects. In the following decades, thisapproach toward project management began to take root in its modern forms. While various business historyThe History of Project Management3.doc models evolved during this period, they all shared a common underlying structure (especially for larger businesses): that the project is managed by a project manager, who puts together a team and ensures the integration and communication of the workflow horizontally across different departments.

Goals and Objectives of Project Management:

Goals and objectives are statements that describe what the project will accomplish, or the business value the project will achieve. Goals are high level statements that provide overall context for what the project is trying to achieve, and should align to business goals. Objectives are lower level statements that describe the specific, tangible products and deliverables that the project will deliver. The definition of goals and objectives is more of an art than a science, and it can be difficult to define them and align them correctly.

Goals Goals are high-level statements that provide the overall context for what the project is trying to accomplish. Let's look at an example and some of the characteristics of a goal statement. One of the goals of a project might be to "increase the overall satisfaction levels for clients calling to the company helpdesk with support needs". Because the goal is at a high-level, it may take more than one project to achieve. In the above example, for instance, there may be a technology component to increasing client satisfaction. There may also be new procedures, new training classes, reorganization of the helpdesk department and modification of the company rewards system. It may take many projects over a long period of time to achieve the goal. The goal should reference the business benefit in terms of cost, speed and / or quality. In this example, the focus is on quality of service. Even if the project is not directly in support of the business, there should be an indirect tie. For instance, an IT infrastructure project to install new web servers may ultimately allow faster client response, better price performance, or other business benefit. If there is no business value to the project, the project should not be started. Generally, non-measurable: If you can measure the achievement of your goal, it is probably at too low a level and is probably more of an objective. If your goal is not achievable through any combination of projects, it is probably written at too high a level. In the above example, you could envision one or more projects that could end up achieving a higher level of client satisfaction. A goal statement that says you are trying to achieve a perfect client experience is not possible with any combination of projects. It may instead be a vision statement, which is a higher level statement showing direction and aspiration, but which may never actually be achieved.

It is important to understand business and project goal statements, even though goals are not a part of the TenStep Project Definition. Goals are most important from a business perspective. The project manager needs to understand the business goals that the project is trying to contribute to. However, you do not need to define specific project goals. On the other hand, objectives definitely are important.

Objectives Objectives are concrete statements describing what the project is trying to achieve. The objective should be written at a lower level, so that it can be evaluated at the conclusion of a project to see whether it was achieved or not. Goal statements are designed to be vague. Objectives should not be vague. A well-worded objective will be Specific, Measurable, Attainable/Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART). An example of an objective statement might be to "upgrade the helpdesk telephone system by December 31 to achieve average client wait times of no more than two minutes". Note that the objective is much more concrete and specific than the goal statement. The objective is measurable in terms of the average client wait times the new phone system is trying to achieve. We must assume that the objective is achievable and realistic. The objective is time-bound, and should be completed within stipulated period. Objectives should refer to the deliverables of the project. In this case, it refers to the upgrade of the telephone system. If you cannot determine what deliverables are being created to achieve the objective, then the objective may be written at too high a level. On the other hand, if an objective describes the characteristics of the deliverables, they are written at too low a level. If they describe the features and functions, they are requirements, not objectives.

Characteristics of Project Management: Something must be done which has not been done before. The undertaking ends with a specific accomplishment. The required activity has a beginning, an end, and a schedule for completion. Resources are limited. Other people are involved on an ad hoc basis. Phases and activities are sequenced.

 History of Project Management In 1917, Henry Gantt developed the famous Gantt chart as a tool for scheduling work in factories A Gantt chart is a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing projects activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format The military was the key industry behind the development of several project management techniques. Members of the US navy Polaris missile/submarine project first used network diagrams in 1958. These diagrams helped model the relationships among project tasks, which allowed them to create schedules that were more realistic. Determining the relationships among tasks helps in finding the critical path of the network. This tells the manager the earliest completion date of the project. In the 1990s, many companies created project management offices (PMO) to help them handle the increasing number and complexity of projects throughout an organization

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements Project managers strive to meet the triple constraint by balancing project scope, time, and cost goals

Project Management Frame work:

Planning, Scheduling (or organising) and Control are considered to be basic Managerial functions, and CPM/PERT has been rightfully accorded due importance in the literature on Operations Research and Quantitative Analysis. Far more than the technical benefits, it was found that PERT/CPM provided a focus around which managers could brain-storm and put their ideas together. It proved to be a great communication medium by which thinkers and planners at one level could communicate their ideas, their doubts and fears to another level. Most important, it became a useful tool for evaluating the performance of individuals and teams. There are many variations of CPM/PERT which have been useful in planning costs, scheduling manpower and machine time. CPM/PERT can answer the following important questions: How long will the entire project take to be completed? What are the risks involved? Which are the critical activities or tasks in the project which could delay the entire project if they were not completed on time? Is the project on schedule, behind schedule or ahead of schedule? If the project has to be finished earlier than planned, what is the best way to do this at the least cost?

The Framework for PERT and CPM

 Essentially, there are six steps which are common to both the techniques. The procedure is listed below: Define the Project and all of its significant activities or tasks. The Project (made up of several tasks) should have only a single start activity and a single finish activity. Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities must precede and which must follow others. Draw the "Network" connecting all the activities. Each Activity should have unique event numbers. Dummy arrows are used where required to avoid giving the same numbering to two activities. Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity Compute the longest time path through the network. This is called the critical path. Use the Network to help plan, schedule, and monitor and control the project. The Key Concept used by CPM/PERT is that a small set of activities, which make up the longest path through the activity network control the entire project. If these "critical" activities could be identified and assigned to responsible persons, management resources could be optimally used by concentrating on the few activities which determine the fate of the entire project. Non-critical activities can be replanned, rescheduled and resources for them can be reallocated flexibly, without affecting the whole project.

Five useful questions to ask when preparing an activity network are:

Is this a Start Activity? Is this a Finish Activity? What Activity Precedes this? What Activity Follows this? What Activity is Concurrent with this? Some activities are serially linked. The second activity can begin only after the first activity is completed. In certain cases, the activities are concurrent, because they are independent of each other and can start simultaneously. This is especially the case in organizations which have supervisory resources so that work can be delegated to various departments which will be responsible for the activities and their completion as planned.

When work is delegated like this, the need for constant feedback and co-ordination becomes an important senior management pre-occupation. There are two important types of Float or Slack. These are Total Float and Free Float. TOTAL FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the latest possible times. Total Float = Latest Start - Earliest Start Activities with zero Total float are on the Critical Path FREE FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the earliest possible times.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CPM & PERT

1. CPM is activity oriented i.e. CPM network is built on the basis of activities. Also result Of carious calculation are considered in terms of activities of the project. On the other hand, PERT is event oriented. 2. CPM is a deterministic model i.e. it does not take into account the uncertainties Involved in the estimation of time for execution of a job or an activity. It completely ignores the probabilistic element of the problem. PERT however is a probabilistic Model. It uses three estimates of the activity time- optimistic, pessimistic and most likely with a view to take into account time uncertainty. This the expected duration of each activity is probabilistic indicates that there is fifty percent probability of getting The job done within the time. 3.CPM place dual emphasis on time and cost and evaluate the tradeoff between project Cost and project time. By deploying allows the project manager to manipulate project duration within certain limits so that project duration can be shortened to an optimal cost. On the other hand : PERT is primanly concerned with time. It helps the manager to schedule and co-ordinate various activities so that the project can be completed on schedule time ssThe Major Differences and Similarities between PERT and CPM PERT(Program Evaluation and Review Technique) | CPM (Critical Path Method) 1)PERT is a probabilistic tool used with three 1)CPM is a deterministic tool, with only single Estimating the duration for completion of estimate of duration.

activities. _______________________________________________________________________________ 2)This tool is basically a tool for planning 2)CPM also allows and explicit estimate of and control of time. costs in addition to time, therefore CPM can control both time and cost. _______________________________________________________________________________ 3)PERT is more suitable for R&D related 3)CPM is best suited for routine and those projects where the project is performed for projects where time and cost estimates can the first time and the estimate of duration be accurately calculated. are uncertain. _______________________________________________________________________________ 4)The probability factor i major in PERT 4)The deterministic factor is more so values or so outcomes may not be exact. outcomes are generally accurate and realistic..