History and Evolution of Leadership in IT Project Management

This report delves into the history of IT project management, tracing its evolution from pre-historic times to the present day. It highlights the shift from early practices, such as the use of project managers in the 1950s, to the development of modern techniques like CPM and PERT in the 1960s. The paper examines the formation of professional project management bodies, including the Project Management Institute, and the impact of technological advancements, such as the rise of personal computers and LANs. The report analyzes key milestones, including the contributions of the Civic and Civil practices in the Australian building industry and the influence of computer technologies on project coordination. The conclusion emphasizes the need for project managers to adapt to constant changes and organizational structures within the IT sector. The report references the work of Stretton (2007) and provides an overview of the history of IT project management.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT
LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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History of project management in IT
Stretton, A. (2007). A short history of modern project management. PM World
Today, 9(10), 1-18.
Introduction:
The main purpose of this research paper is to provide the reader with the different
evolutions of project management since the pre historic times till the present date. Project
management it stands to be very common to share the examples of the Egyptian Pyramids in the
early historical projects. But here comes a broade aspect in the present era which is called as the
modern project management. The modern project management tools concepts and the techniques
are developed are also getting various types of modifications. Its is only because the area of the
application of project management has been very wide in the present era. Therefore the short
history on the project management in IT will widely focus on the mainstream, issues and various
types of developments from the last forty years. The paper will also identify and get hold of the
latest trend which are related with the topic of project management from the time of writing. The
paper will focus on the journal article which refers to the early Australian project management
development where the writer is personally involved with many things.
Analysis
An early stage of the project management in earlier 1950’s.
At that time Bachtel was the first person to use the term project manager in one of the
international work in the beginning of 1950. However the use of th term at that time did not

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function like now a days which is used in the business. Rather it was just an assignment which
was given to the author with a team of members to carry out and accomplish the task. The team
was operating in a remote area with individual responsibilities given to them. The author also
discussed the challenges which were faced by the person who had the responsibility of the
project manager. Previously the term was used as Project Engineer who was responsible for
checking various types of jobs and plans in the project. But in the present date the project
manager is something which is a full time position in the organization and the person has to work
throughout his or her life in the organization.
The mid stage of the project management in 1950’s.
The Civic and the Civil was later recognized as the leaders in the project management in
the Australian building industry. At that time the project manager established the concept of both
civil and civic practice and established the practice of design process, value analysis and design
effectively. In the natural existence of the company the project manager managed the external
clients so as by taking full responsibility ofg te project directly from the start to the end or
execution of the services provided by the organization. The move was slowly initiated in the late
19601 but it did not have the demand much at that time. Slowly after the 19860s the term project
management came into existence in the industries and gained a all time demanding post in the
organization.
The later stage of project management in 1950’s
In this period of project management two new things came into existence which were the
technique use in project management. Those are the project planning and monitoring process.
Which was commonly called as the critical path method ( CPM) and the project evaluation

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review techniques ( PERT) were developed. It is related with the direct consequences of te
initial development of the programming model of the project. The first model came into
existence in the 1960s. Whereas the PERT network came in to existence in the late 1980s. it was
used to essentially tackle the problems which were related with the time cost trade offs in the
project.
The formation of the professional project management bodies in the late 1980.
In order to summaries the development two later main bodies of project management
were established at the time, one being the European Network and another the North American
project management. These indicate the further development of the project management with
primary focus on CPM, PERT and CIVIC and CIVIL. With the development of the European
network of planning practitioners in the way of exchanging the knowledge and experience was
formed which is the use of International Project Management Association which is formerly
known as The Internet in the year 1956. It is now an umbrella organization which is known for
covering more than 15 national project management associations which are mainly the European
based national projects. Later in the year 1970 the Project Management Institute was formed
which had 8900 members mainly from USA and Canada. The year 1970 saw an unprecedented
expansion of project management applicable areas. The spread of the project management areas
expanded from the cities to the construction areas, aerospace and defense areas which were
virtually each specific industry itself. There was a wider use of tools and techniques which
includes the WHS, responsibility project management matrices which earned great value in that
era. There was a great investigation established on project management to undertake various
projects in different geographical areas.

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The impact on the Compute Technologies
There was a development of the cheap yet very powerful personal computers which wee
furthered connected with the use of LAN or local area network. This gave the people a superior
capability of the use of coordination of the workforce in the project management contributions.
Conclusion
In order to conclude the above research paper it can be recognized that there has a been a
vast development and changes made in the project management which has evolved throughout
the history. The project management with the involvement of Information Technology has
facilitated the advancement of the project control in various types of organization in many
countries of the world. Therefore in the present era of utmost innovation it can be recommended
that the project manager should adapt to constant changes in the project management and shift to
the various types of organizational structures in the organization.

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References
URL: http://faculty.tnstate.edu/jsiekpe/teaching/BISI%206550/Readings/A%20short
%20history.pdf
Stretton, A. (2007). A short history of modern project management. PM World
Today, 9(10), 1-18.