Concepts and Definitions
2.3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT: 1960–1985
The growth of project management has come about more through necessity than through desire. Its slow growth can be attributed mainly to lack of acceptance of the new manage- ment techniques necessary for its successful implementation. An inherent fear of the un- known acted as a deterrent for managers.
Between the middle and late 1960s, more executives began searching for new manage- ment techniques and organizational structures that could be quickly adapted to a changing
Project Management: 1960–1985 35
environment. The table below and Figure 2–1 identify two major variables that executives consider with regard to organizational restructuring.
36 PROJECT MANAGEMENT GROWTH: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
Type of Industry Tasks Environment
A Simple Dynamic
B Simple Static
C Complex Dynamic
D Complex Static
Almost all type C and most type D industries have project management–related struc- tures. The key variable appears to be task complexity. Companies that have complex tasks and that also operate in a dynamic environment find project management mandatory. Such industries would include aerospace, defense, construction, high-technology engineering, computers, and electronic instrumentation.
Other than aerospace, defense, and construction, the majority of the companies in the 1960s maintained an informal method for managing projects. In informal project manage- ment, just as the words imply, the projects were handled on an informal basis whereby the
D Y N A M I C
(INFORMAL PROJECT
MGT.)
S TAT I C
S I M P L E COMPLEX
OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
1960s: TOTALLY PROJECT DRIVEN
1970s 1980s
TYPE OF TASKS GREA
TER NEED FOR UNDERST
ANDING HUMAN BEHA VIOR
FIGURE 2–1. Matrix implementation scheme.
authority of the project manager was minimized. Most projects were handled by functional managers and stayed in one or two functional lines, and formal communications were either unnecessary or handled informally because of the good working relationships between line managers. Many organizations today, such as low-technology manufacturing, have line man- agers who have been working side by side for ten or more years. In such situations, informal project management may be effective on capital equipment or facility development projects.
By 1970 and again during the early 1980s, more companies departed from informal project management and restructured to formalize the project management process, mainly because the size and complexity of their activities had grown to a point where they were unmanageable within the current structure. Figure 2–2 shows what happened to one such construction company. The following five questions help determine whether formal proj- ect management is necessary:
● Are the jobs complex?
● Are there dynamic environmental considerations?
● Are the constraints tight?
● Are there several activities to be integrated?
● Are there several functional boundaries to be crossed?
If any of these questions are answered yes, then some form of formalized project man- agement may be necessary. It is possible for formalized project management to exist in only one functional department or division, such as for R&D or perhaps just for certain types of projects. Some companies have successfully implemented both formal and infor- mal project management concurrently, but these companies are few and far between.
Today we realize that the last two questions may be the most important.
Project Management: 1960–1985 37
AV E R AG E VA L U E
O F P R O J E C T
( $ M M )
100
80
60
40
20
1960 '62 '64 '66 '68 '70 '72 '74 '76 '78 '80 '82 '84 FIGURE 2–2. Average project size capability for a construction company, 1960–1984.
The moral here is that not all industries need project management, and executives must determine whether there is an actual need before making a commitment. Several in- dustries with simple tasks, whether in a static or a dynamic environment, do not need proj- ect management. Manufacturing industries with slowly changing technology do not need project management, unless of course they have a requirement for several special projects, such as capital equipment activities, that could interrupt the normal flow of work in the routine manufacturing operations. The slow growth rate and acceptance of project man- agement were related to the fact that the limitations of project management were readily apparent, yet the advantages were not completely recognizable. Project management re- quires organizational restructuring. The question, of course, is “How much restructuring?”
Executives have avoided the subject of project management for fear that “revolutionary”
changes must be made in the organization. As will be seen in Chapter 3, project manage- ment can be achieved with little departure from the existing traditional structure.
Project management restructuring has permitted companies to:
● Accomplish tasks that could not be effectively handled by the traditional structure
● Accomplish onetime activities with minimum disruption of routine business The second item implies that project management is a “temporary” management structure and, therefore, causes minimum organizational disruption. The major problems identified by those managers who endeavored to adapt to the new system all revolved around conflicts in authority and resources.
Three major problems were identified by Killian1:
● Project priorities and competition for talent may interrupt the stability of the orga- nization and interfere with its long-range interests by upsetting the normal busi- ness of the functional organization.
● Long-range planning may suffer as the company gets more involved in meeting schedules and fulfilling the requirements of temporary projects.
● Shifting people from project to project may disrupt the training of new employees and specialists. This may hinder their growth and development within their fields of specialization.
Another major concern was that project management required upper-level managers to relinquish some of their authority through delegation to the middle managers. In several situations, middle managers soon occupied the power positions, even more so than upper- level managers.
Despite these limitations, there were several driving forces behind the project man- agement approach. According to John Kenneth Galbraith, these forces stem from “the im- peratives of technology.” The six imperatives are2:
38 PROJECT MANAGEMENT GROWTH: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
1. William P. Killian, “Project Management—Future Organizational Concepts,”Marquette Business Review,Vol.
2, 1971, pp. 90–107.
2. Excerpt from John Kenneth Galbraith,The New Industrial State,3rd ed. Copyright © 1967, 1971, 1978, by John Kenneth Galbraith. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
● The time span between project initiation and completion appears to be increasing.
● The capital committed to the project prior to the use of the end item appears to be increasing.
● As technology increases, the commitment of time and money appears to become inflexible.
● Technology requires more and more specialized manpower.
● The inevitable counterpart of specialization is organization.
● The above five “imperatives” identify the necessity for more effective planning, scheduling, and control.
As the driving forces overtook the restraining forces, project management began to mature. Executives began to realize that the approach was in the best interest of the com- pany. Project management, if properly implemented, can make it easier for executives to overcome such internal and external obstacles as:
● Unstable economy
● Shortages
● Soaring costs
● Increased complexity
● Heightened competition
● Technological changes
● Societal concerns
● Consumerism
● Ecology
● Quality of work
Project management may not eliminate these problems, but may make it easier for the company to adapt to a changing environment.
If these obstacles are not controlled, the results may be:
● Decreased profits
● Increased manpower needs
● Cost overruns, schedule delays, and penalty payments occurring earlier and earlier
● An inability to cope with new technology
● R&D results too late to benefit existing product lines
● New products introduced into the marketplace too late
● Temptation to make hasty decisions that prove to be costly
● Management insisting on earlier and greater return on investment
● Greater difficulty in establishing on-target objectives in real time
● Problems in relating cost to technical performance and scheduling during the exe- cution of the project
Project management became a necessity for many companies as they expanded into multiple product lines, many of which were dissimilar, and organizational complexities grew. This growth can be attributed to:
● Technology increasing at an astounding rate
● More money invested in R&D
Project Management: 1960–1985 39
● More information available
● Shortening of project life cycles
To satisfy the requirements imposed by these four factors, management was “forced”
into organizational restructuring; the traditional organizational form that had survived for decades was inadequate for integrating activities across functional “empires.”
By 1970, the environment began to change rapidly. Companies in aerospace, defense, and construction pioneered in implementing project management, and other industries soon followed, some with great reluctance. NASA and the Department of Defense
“forced” subcontractors into accepting project management. The 1970s also brought much more published data on project management. As an example3:
Project teams and task forces will become more common in tackling complexity. There will be more of what some people call temporary management systems as project management systems where the men [and women] who are needed to contribute to the solution meet, make their contribution, and perhaps never become a permanent member of any fixed or permanent management group.
The definition simply states that the purpose of project management is to put together the best possible team to achieve the objective, and, at termination, the team is disbanded.
Nowhere in the definition do we see the authority of the project manager or his rank, title, or salary.
Because current organizational structures are unable to accommodate the wide variety of interrelated tasks necessary for successful project completion, the need for project man- agement has become apparent. It is usually first identified by those lower-level and mid- dle managers who find it impossible to control their resources effectively for the diverse activities within their line organization. Quite often middle managers feel the impact of a changing environment more than upper-level executives.
Once the need for change is identified, middle management must convince upper-level management that such a change is actually warranted. If top-level executives cannot rec- ognize the problems with resource control, then project management will not be adopted, at least formally. Informal acceptance, however, is another story.
In 1978, the author received a request from an automobile equipment manufacturer who was considering formal project management. The author was permitted to speak with several middle managers. The following comments were made:
● “Here at ABC Company (a division of XYZ Corporation), we have informal proj- ect management. By this, I mean that work flows the same as it would in formal project management except that the authority, responsibility, and accountability are implied rather than rigidly defined. We have been very successful with this structure, especially when you consider that the components we sell cost 30 per- cent more than our competitors, and that our growth rate has been in excess of 12 40 PROJECT MANAGEMENT GROWTH: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
3. Reprinted from the October 17, 1970, issue of BusinessWeekby special permission, © 1970 by McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, New York 10020. All rights reserved.
percent each year for the past six years. The secret of our success has been our quality and our ability to meet schedule dates.”
● “Our informal structure works well because our department managers do not hide problems. They aren’t afraid to go into another department manager’s office and talk about the problems they’re having controlling resources. Our success is based upon the fact that all of our department managers do this. What’s going to happen if we hire just one or two people who won’t go along with this approach? Will we be forced to go to formalized project management?”
● “This division is a steppingstone to greatness in our corporation. It seems that all of the middle managers who come to this division get promoted either within the division, to higher management positions in other divisions, or to a higher position at corporate headquarters.”
Next the author conducted two three-day seminars on engineering project manage- ment for seventy-five of the lower-, middle-, and upper-level managers. The seminar par- ticipants were asked whether they wanted to adopt formal project management. The fol- lowing concerns were raised by the participants:
● “Will I have more or less power and/or authority?”
● “How will my salary be affected?”
● “Why should I permit a project manager to share the resources in my empire?”
● “Will I get top management visibility?”
Even with these concerns, the majority of the attendees felt that formalized project man- agement would alleviate a lot of their present problems.
Although the middle levels of the organization, where resources are actually con- trolled on a day-to-day basis, felt positive about project management, convincing the top levels of management was another story. If you were the chief executive officer of this di- vision, earning a six-figure salary, and looking at a growth rate of 12 percent per year for the last five years, would you “rock the boat” simply because your middle managers want project management?
This example highlights three major points:
● The final decision for the implementation of project management does (and will always) rest with executive management.
● Executives must be willing to listen when middle management identifies a crisis in controlling resources. This is where the need for project management should first appear.
● Executives are paid to look out for the long-range interest of the corporation and should not be swayed by near-term growth rate or profitability.
Today, ABC Company is still doing business the way it was done in the past—with infor- mal project management. The company is a classic example of how informal project man- agement can be made to work successfully. The author agrees with the company execu- tives that, in this case, formal project management is not necessary.
Project Management: 1960–1985 41
William C. Goggin, board chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Corning, de- scribes a situation in his corporation that was quite different from the one at ABC4:
Although Dow Corning was a healthy corporation in 1967, it showed difficulties that trou- bled many of us in top management. These symptoms were, and still are, common ones in U.S. business and have been described countless times in reports, audits, articles and speeches. Our symptoms took such forms as:
● Executives did not have adequate financial information and control of their operations.
Marketing managers, for example, did not know how much it cost to produce a prod- uct. Prices and margins were set by division managers.
● Cumbersome communications channels existed between key functions, especially manufacturing and marketing.
● In the face of stiffening competition, the corporation remained too internalized in its thinking and organizational structure. It was insufficiently oriented to the outside world.
● Lack of communications between divisions not only created the antithesis of a corpo- rate team effort but also was wasteful of a precious resource—people.
● Long range corporate planning was sporadic and superficial; this was leading to over- staffing, duplicated effort and inefficiency.
Once the need for project management has been defined, the next logical question is,
“How long a conversion period will be necessary before a company can operate in a proj- ect management environment?” To answer this question we must first look at Figure 2–3.
Technology, as expected, has the fastest rate of change, and the overall environment of a business must adapt to rapidly changing technology.
In an ideal situation, the organizational structure of a company would immediately adapt to the changing environment. In a real situation, this will not be a smooth transition but more like the erratic line shown in Figure 2–3. This erratic line is a trademark or char- acteristic of the traditional structure. Project management structures, however, can, and of- ten do, adapt to a rapidly changing environment with a relatively smooth transition.
Even though an executive can change the organizational structure with the stroke of a pen, people are responsible for its implementation. However, it can be seen in Figure 2–3 that people have the slowest rate of change. Edicts, documents signed by executives, and training programs will not convince employees that a new organizational form will work.
Employees will be convinced only after they see the new system in action, and this takes time.
As a general rule, it often takes two to three years to convert from a traditional struc- ture to a project management structure. The major reason for this is that in a traditional structure the line employee has one, and only one, boss; in a project management structure the employee reports vertically to his line manager and horizontally to every project man- ager to whose activities he is assigned, either temporarily or full-time. This situation often 42 PROJECT MANAGEMENT GROWTH: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
4. Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review.From William C. Goggin, “How the Multidimensional Structure Works at Dow Corning,”Harvard Business Review,January–February 1974, p. 54. Copyright © 1973 by the Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation; all rights reserved.
leads to a culture-shock condition. Employees will perform in a new system because they are directed to do so but will not have confidence in it or become dedicated until they have been involved in several different projects and believe that they can effectively report to more than one boss.
When an employee is told that he will be working horizontally as well as vertically, his first concern is his take-home pay. Employees always question whether they can be evaluated fairly if they report to several managers during the same time period. One of the major reasons why project management fails is that top-level executives neglect to con- sider that any organizational change must be explained in terms of the wage and salary ad- ministration program.5This must occur beforechange is made. If change comes first, and employees are not convinced that they can be evaluated correctly, they may try to sabotage the whole effort. From then on, it will probably be a difficult, if not impossible, task to rec- tify the situation. However, once the employees accept project management and the pro- cedure of reporting in two directions, the company can effectively and efficiently convert from one project management organizational form to another. After all, weren’t most of us educated throughout our childhood on how to report to two bosses—a mother and a father?
Not all companies need two to three years to convert to project management. The ABC Company described earlier would probably have very little trouble in converting because informal project management is well accepted. In the early 1960s, TRW was forced to con- vert to a project management structure almost overnight. The company was highly successful in this, mainly because of the loyalty and dedication of the employees. The TRW employees were willing to give the system a chance. Any organizational structure,
Project Management: 1960–1985 43
TIME (YEARS)
RATE OF CHANGE
BUSINESS GOALS AND OBJECTIVES PEOPLE
ORGANIZATION ENVIRONMENT
TECHNOLOGY COMPANY BUSINESS
SYSTEMS (EACH SLICE REPRESENTS AN UPDATED SYSTEM)
FIGURE 2–3. Systems in a changing environment.
5. The mechanisms for employee evaluation in a project environment are discussed further in Section 8.1.
no matter how bad, will work if the employees are willing to make it work. Yet other com- panies can spend three to five years trying to implement change and fail. The literature de- scribes many cases where project management has failed because:
● There was no need for project management.
● Employees were not informed about how project management should work.
● Executives did not select the appropriate projects or project managers for the first few projects.
● There was no attempt to explain the effect of the project management organiza- tional form on the wage and salary administration program.
● Employees were not convinced that executives totally supported the change.
Some companies (and executives) are forced into project management before they re- alize what has happened, and chaos ensues. As an example, consider a highly traditional company that purchased its first computer. The company had five divisions: engineering, finance, manufacturing, marketing, and human resources. Not knowing where to put the computer, the chief executive officer created an electronic data processing (EDP) depart- ment and placed it under finance and accounting. The executive’s rationale was that since the reason for buying the computer was to eliminate repetitive tasks and the majority of these were in accounting and finance, that was where EDP belonged. The vice president for accounting and finance might not be qualified to manage the EDP department, but that seemed beside the point.
The EDP department had a staff of scientific and business computer programmers and systems analysts. The scientific programmers spent almost all their time working in the en- gineering division writing engineering programs; they had to learn engineering in order to do this. In this company, the engineer did not consider himself to be a computer program- mer, but did the computer programmer consider himself to be an engineer?
The company’s policy was that merit and cost-of-living increases were given out in July of each year. This year the average salary increase would be 7 percent. However, the president wanted the increase given according to merit, and not as a flat rate across the board. After long hours of deliberation, it was decided that engineering, manufacturing, and marketing would receive 8 percent raises, and finance and personnel 5.5 percent.
After announcing the salary increases, the scientific programmers began to complain because they felt they were doing engineering-type work and should therefore be paid ac- cording to the engineering pay scale. Management tried to resolve this problem by giving each division its own computer and personnel. However, this resulted in duplication of ef- fort and inefficient use of personnel.
With the rapid advancements in computer technology, management realized the need for timely access to information for executive decision-making. In a rather bold move, ex- ecutives created a new division called management information systems (MIS). The MIS division now had full control of all computer operations and the EDP personnel had the opportunity to show that they actually contributed to corporate profits.
Elevating the computer to the top levels of the organization was a significant step to- ward project management. Unfortunately, many executives did not fully realize what had happened. Because of the need for a rapid information retrieval system that could integrate data from a variety of line organizations, the MIS personnel soon found that they were 44 PROJECT MANAGEMENT GROWTH: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS