Project Management
-a work form
Henrik Barth
A brief history of Project Management
Early civilization
Great Pyramid
Great Wall of China
1900-1920: Need for structured PM
1910 Henry Gantt invented Gant chart, providing
a visual schedule to plan, manage and track tasks
in projects
1911 Frederic Taylor published a book on project
management tactics regarding efficiency of skilled
labors
1950-1980: Mathematically based PM
1957 The Critical Path Method is invented by the
Dupont Corp., an algorithm for scheduling a set
of project activities
1969 Project Management Institute is launched to
promote the project management profession
1980-200: Computer-based PM
1983 SCRUM is named as a project management
style, an agile software model
2000-present:Web-based versions of PM
IoT,AI, Big data etc.
What is a project?
• Move company
headquarters?
• To plan a wedding?
• Launch a new car
model?
• Find cheap airline
tickets?
• Write a book?
Project 3D Life
Defining a project
Specific goal – a unique assignment
Specific time period - timed
Specific resources – an independent budget
Unique work arrangements – a temporary organisation
Major issues in project management
Source: Morris and Hough (1987). The anatomy of major projects. New York, Wiley.
Project Life Cycle
Source: Tonnquist, 2016
Project Life Cycle
Source: Adams, J. R. (1978). Organizational life cycle implications for major projects.
Project Management Quarterly, 9(4), 32–39.
Project Life Cycle Variables
Source: Boznak (1991)
Regular projects vs innovation projects
Innovation projects tend to start with loosely defined, sometimes even ambiguous
objectives that become clearer as the project proceeds. The processes used are more
experimental and exploratory and seldom follow strict linear guidelines.
Teams need to be more diverse and have a higher level of trust as they explore new
territory where failure is a possibility.
With failure as a built-in possibility, innovation teams are more actively involved with
risk management and need to learn to fail fast and fail smart in order to move on to
more attractive options.
Also, innovation projects generally need to be sold to project sponsors and funding
committees, a responsibility usually not required from normal project teams.
New technology- from conventional to
digital manufacturing
-How can the structure facilitate or complicate projects?
CEO
VP VP CEO
VP Sales Marketing Engineering
Sales Marketing Eng. Product 1 Product 2 Product 3
manager 1 manager 1 Manager 1
Eng. Eng. Eng.
Sales Marketing Eng.
manager 2 manager 2 Manager 2
Sales Marketing Eng. Marketing Marketing Marketing
manager 3 manager 3 Manager 3
Sales Sales Sales
CEO
Functional Functional Functional
manager 1 manager 2 manager 3
Sales Marketing Eng.
manager 1 manager 1 Manager 1 CEO
Sales Marketing Eng.
manager 2 manager 2 Manager 2
Employee Employee Employee
Sales Marketing Eng.
manager 3 manager 3 Manager 3
Project and roles
Organising
Governing & Supporting Executing
managing
Resource
owner
Project
Project owner
manager
Reference
group
Project group
Quality
manager
Project
Steering
management
committee
team
Communicator
Agile methods
• Based on a set of values, attributes and principles
that describe how work should be organised in a
complex and changeable world
• Methods and tools linked to Lean production, also
Lean start-up
• Often used in software development and system
administration
• Agile methods primarily belong in the execution
phase and the developmental level in the project
model
The agile manifesto
• Value individuals and interactions over process
and tools
• Value working software over comprehensive
documentation
• Value customer collaboration over contract
negotiation
• Value responding to change over following a
plan
Agile meetings and ongoing work
Short meetings every day
• Wat did I do yesterday?
• What am I to do today?
• Are there any obstacles?
Visualise ongoing work
• Planned work tasks
• Work-in-progress
• Finished work tasks
Values and mind-
set: Green
integration
project
• Co-creating a
match-making
process
• Partners:
– Rural Economy and
Agricultural
Societies in Halland
– Sweden’s Public
Employment Agency
– Halmstad University
Scrum – an agile development method
• Scrum is an approach for achieving
software agility.
• Scrum is a method of iterative and
incremental product delivery that
implicates collaborative decision-
making and frequent feedback.
• The term “Scrum” refers to an
analogy comparing high-
performing, cross-functional teams
to the Scrum formation used by
rugby teams (Takeuchi and
Nonaka, 1986)
The Scrum process
Short, daily
follow-up
meetings
A list of tasks Prioritized tasks
included in the to be executed
assignment within a sprint
Source: Kukhnavets, 2019
