In the past, business owners transact business with each other according to the level of trust they have for each other. Oftentimes, trust is based on their relationships and recommendations. Long-term business partnership and relationship can help develop trust and confidence.
The Evolution of Project Management
During the early days, they perform their administrative tasks manually and all the records were on files and folders. They use calculators and cash register machines to compute everything from sales to reports. Only the experts can manage major projects and planning is undertaken by technical thinkers. Project management (PM) in the previous decades was simple and teams can manage them using manual tools available during that time.
In the 1950s, project management evolved in the engineering field with Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol who built the foundation. They have initiated the techniques of dividing big tasks into smaller tasks and the methods of allocating resources. Project management started to expand with the evolution of modern theories and it has been utilized in almost all fields and industries.
The Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) and the Critical Path Method (CPM) have already been used by organizations in the 1950s but they both became more popular during the 1960s and 1970s. NASA and the Defense Department of various countries as well as large engineering and construction companies applied these theories and principles to manage their high budgeted schedule-driven projects.
The advancement of technologies had a boom with the arrival and popularity of computers which saved the long tedious job of computing with the use of calculators. Computers have greatly helped make the tasks easier and faster. When the Internet arrived, it brought with it a lot of changes in the project management. Projects were expected to finish faster and clients became more demanding. This technological breakthrough has coincided with the development of the associated programs that were specifically made for project management.
Initially, PM software was very costly and executed on mini computers. It was in 1980s that various PM techniques were done with the use of computers and the PM software. During this time, the adoption of PM programs in the manufacturing sector commenced and were widely accepted in various organizations.
Recently, PM can be considered an art. It has become a challenge more than a job. Project managers need to learn how to manage everything in the whole project — resources (both financial and human), time, scope, communication, investments, and more. The role of technology has contributed to the demands in this field. Because technology can greatly support the manager and the team, there have been more pressure in terms of the duration of the project, more effective communication, higher quality of deliverables, and more. High demands could be attributed to the various wonders that the new project management process has undertaken.
Project management has evolved the same way that most things have. It was started early and slow but its dynamic growth started during the age of computers and the Internet.
