Persistent Project Problems Everyone Has

The history of project management goes back many years.  Some say the building of the pyramids in Egypt would not be a good starting point. More recently, Henry Gantt invents the Gantt chart in 1917.  In 1957, Critical path was developed by Dupont. The US Navy’s Special Projects Division used Program Evaluation Review (PERT) for the Polaris project in 1958.

Further development of the project management profession includes defining scrum, using the Theory of Constraints to define critical chain, the Project Management Institute is founded in 1969, earned value comes of age, and Agile Manifesto was published in 2001.

Never the less, it’s not hard to find a wide variety of projects which have problems. Maybe one or more of your projects have struggled with these issues, too:

• • Lack of people, parts, equipment, etc.
  • Not enough time
  • Missed due dates
  • Frequent schedule changes
  • Too much rework
  • Budget over-runs
  • Conflicts over priorities, projects and resources
  • Constant pressure to add more projects

Why, after so many years of project management blood, sweat and tears do we still have to deal with these problems?