Origin

The word project comes from the Latin word projectum.
It was originally meant "to throw something forwards" which taken from the words pro and Jacere.

Project also has the meaning of "something that comes before anything else is done".

During the 1950s, many techniques for project management were introduced and that had changed the use of the term "project". Gradually, the term was adopted to mean a plan to do something.

The discipline of project management  was derived from several fields of application like construction, engineering and military.

 

Milestones In Project Management

In the beginning:      Project Creation of Heaven and Earth  Project Manager:             God Time:                                 7 days Cost:                                  Unlimited Quality:                              Perfect Risk:                                   Creation of Adam  Change Management:    Addition of new                                             deliverable (Eve) in Phase II

	Pre-History:                 Project Construction of Egyptian Pyramid
	Ancient History:         Project Contruction of Great Wall of  China
	1856 - 1915:        Frederick Taylor, "the father of scientific management" developed the concept of breaking detailed work into elementary parts that evolved into Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Frederick Taylor also invented the concept of resource allocation.

	1861 - 1919: Taylor's associate, Henry Gantt introduced the Gantt Chart (bar chart), a visual aid for project scheduling and planning.
	1942 - 1946: The Manhattan Project used sophisticated project planning, scheduling and tracking methods to develop the first atomic bomb.
	1950's: Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT chart), a result of the Polaris Missile Program Critical Path Method (CPM) developed by Du Pont and Rand Remington Univac Concept of Single Point of Responsibility
	1960's: The Apollo Space Project became a model for matrix organization Concept of Earned Value adopted by USAF Concept of Project Life Cycle adopted by USAF.          Concept of Configuration Management adopted by NASA
	1965: The birth of International Project Management Association (IPMA) in Europe.  It started as a discussion group for project managers involved in International projects.  Currently, it has more than 20,000 members all over the world.
	1969:  The birth of Project Management Institute in United States.   More chapters have been formed globally and now is the largest project managment                  organization in the world. It has over 75,000 members to date.
	1970's Multi-disciplines Project Management (eg. Software Project Management &  IT Project Management)
	1980's PMI certified the first Project Management Professionals (PMP)  in 1984.                                     PMI published The Project Management Body of Knoweldge (PMBOK) in 1987.
	1990's Concept of Project-based Organization Various Project Management software like Microsoft Project adopted by project practisioners.    1996 Version of  PMBOK Guide First Edition PRINCE2 Manual (1996) Second Edition PRINCE2 Manual (1998)
	Today's Project Management Maturity Model       Enterprise wide project management                                                Global project management standard Project Management certifications getting recognized in industries. Web-based project management software and tools Project Portfolio Management & Program Management                                              2nd Edition of  PMBOK (2000)

           3rd Edition of  PMBOK (2004)

           Third Edition PRINCE2 Manual (2002)

            Fourth Edition PRINCE2 Manual (2005)                                    

	2105                          Project:  Migration to Moon
	Beyond 3000 Please read the revelation chapter  in Bible - Last Judgment Project Every project has a definite start and end date.

 

Who's Who in Project Management:

1.  David I. Cleland -    
     Dr. Cleland is known as the father of project
     management and is the authour of
     several project management text books. He is the  
     Professor Emeritus with University of Pittsburgh.

2.   Harold Kerzner-  
       Dr. Kerzner is the Professor at Baldwin-Wallace
       College. His well known book
       "Project Management - A Systems Approach to
       Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling" has
       become the bible to many project managers.

3.   J Rodney Turner-   
       Professor Turner's The Handbook of Project
       Based-Management is an useful
       guide of project management and cover almost all
       key knowledge areas of current project
       management.

4.    Eric Jenett, PMP, PMI Founder
       James R. Snyder, PMI Founder
       Dr. J. Gordon Davis, PMI Founder

5.    R. Max Wideman-   
        His well known project management glossary.

6.    James P. Lewis-   
       Dr. Lewis' The Project Manager's Desk Reference
       is one of the most best-selling
       project management reference books.

7.    Hans J. Thamhain- 
       Dr. THamhain is the Professor with Bentley
       college. He is the author of several project
       management books and frequent speaker to
       project management conferences.

8.   Rita Mulcahy

9.   Karen Tate

10.  Dinsmore Paul

and many others......

 

Not to forget the dedicated Project Management Professionals and Trainers in the world!

 

3rd November has been declared as the

 International Project Management Day

http://www.internationalpmday.org/