The History and Standards of Project Management
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A Short History
People have managed projects since the pyramids, but project management as a discipline is recent. Key milestones include:
| Period | Development |
| 1910s | Henry Gantt popularized the bar chart that bears his name for planning and tracking work (Gantt, 1919) |
| 1950s | The Critical Path Method (CPM) and the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) were developed for industrial and defense projects (Kelley & Walker, 1959; Malcolm et al., 1959) |
| 1969 | The Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded |
| 1970 | Royce published the paper that became associated with the "waterfall" approach to software development |
| 1980s to 1990s | Spiral and iterative models appeared (Boehm, 1988), and PRINCE (later PRINCE2) was developed in the United Kingdom |
| 2001 | The Agile Manifesto was written by a group of software practitioners (Beck et al., 2001) |
| 2010s onward | Agile, hybrid, and value-driven approaches spread beyond software; the Scrum Guide was revised in 2020 (Schwaber & Sutherland, 2020) |
| 2020s | Project management standards moved toward principles, tailoring, sustainability, and people, including the PMBOK Guide's eighth edition (2025) and PRINCE2 7 (2023) |
The Major Standards and Frameworks
No single framework fits every project. The main ones are summarized below, followed by notes on each.
| Framework | Type | Main emphasis |
| PMBOK Guide (PMI) | Standard and body of knowledge | Principles, performance domains, and processes; applies to predictive, agile, and hybrid work |
| PRINCE2 (PeopleCert) | Method | Business justification, defined roles, stages, and management by exception |
| ISO 21502:2020 | International guidance | A general description of project management concepts and processes |
| Agile and Scrum | Values and framework | Iterative delivery, collaboration, and responsiveness to change |
| IPMA Individual Competence Baseline | Competence standard | The perspective, people, and practice competences of a project manager |
| APM Body of Knowledge | Body of knowledge | A UK-based, broad view of context, people, delivery, and interfaces |
The PMBOK Guide, eighth edition (2025). PMI released the eighth edition in November 2025 (Project Management Institute, 2025; ProjectManagement.com, 2025). According to published summaries, it organizes the field around six principles, seven performance domains, five focus areas, and 40 processes (BrainBOK, n.d.; Project Management Knowledge, n.d.). The six principles are commonly listed as: adopt a holistic view; focus on value; embed quality in processes and deliverables; be an accountable leader; integrate sustainability; and build an empowered culture (Scanme, n.d.). The seven performance domains are Governance, Scope, Schedule, Finance, Stakeholders, Resources, and Risk. The five focus areas restore the familiar lifecycle labels: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. Quality is treated as a principle rather than a stand-alone domain. Procurement was moved to an appendix, according to one summary (Millpond, n.d.). The earlier sixth edition (2017) had 49 processes in ten knowledge areas, and the seventh edition (2021) replaced them with twelve principles and eight domains (PMI, 2017; PMI, 2021).
PRINCE2 7 (2023). PRINCE2 7 retains seven principles, seven processes, and seven practices (renamed from "themes"): Business Case, Organizing, Plans, Quality, Risk, Issues, and Progress. It adds a People element, a stronger treatment of sustainability, and a seventh performance target (sustainability, alongside time, cost, quality, scope, risk, and benefits) (Knowledge Train, n.d.; QA, n.d.). PRINCE2 is widely used in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.
ISO 21502:2020 gives high-level guidance on project management, describing concepts and processes that apply to any organization (International Organization for Standardization [ISO], 2020).
Agile and Scrum. The Agile Manifesto states four values and twelve principles (Beck et al., 2001). Scrum, defined in the Scrum Guide, is the most common agile framework (Schwaber & Sutherland, 2020). Chapter 14 covers both in detail.
IPMA and APM. The International Project Management Association's Individual Competence Baseline focuses on the competences of individuals (IPMA, 2015). The UK Association for Project Management publishes the APM Body of Knowledge (APM, 2019).
Choosing and Combining
Many experienced managers draw on several frameworks. A typical university or research project does not need formal certification-level process; it needs a clear scope, a realistic schedule, a risk register, regular communication, and honest tracking. Treat the standards as toolkits from which to select, which is what the idea of tailoring means in every modern framework.
CHAPTER 3