The origins of schedule management: the concepts used in planning, allocating, visualizing and managing time in a project

doi:10.15302/J-FEM-2018012

Front. Eng

2018, Vol. 5

Issue (2) : 150-166 https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FEM-2018012

REVIEW ARTICLE

The origins of schedule management: the concepts used in planning, allocating, visualizing and managing time in a project

Lynda M. BOURNE¹, Patrick WEAVER²(

)

¹. Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne 3800, Australia
². Mosaic Project Services Pty Ltd, Melbourne 3205, Australia

Download: PDF(3150 KB) HTML
Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks

Abstract

Getting the right people in the right place at the right time has always been a major organizational challenge. In ancient times this process seems to have been accomplished based on the scheme of arrangements being contained in the leader’s mind and instructions communicated verbally. Modern approaches to solving the twin challenges of first thinking through the ‘plan’ and then communicating the plan to the people who need to do ‘the right work, at the right time, in the right place’ use sophisticated graphics, charts, diagrams, and computations. This paper traces the development of the concepts most project managers take for granted including bar charts and critical path schedules from their origins (which are far earlier than most people think) through to the modern day. The first section of the paper looks at the development of concepts that allow the visualization of time and other data. The second looks at the shift from static representations to dynamic modeling through the emergence of computers, dynamic calculations and integrated data from the 1950s to the present time.

Keywords time management scheduling CPM PERT Gantt Critical Path bar chart

Corresponding Author(s): Patrick WEAVER

Just Accepted Date: 04 April 2018 Online First Date: 27 April 2018 Issue Date: 28 June 2018

Cite this article:

Lynda M. BOURNE,Patrick WEAVER. The origins of schedule management: the concepts used in planning, allocating, visualizing and managing time in a project[J]. Front. Eng, 2018, 5(2): 150-166.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fem/EN/10.15302/J-FEM-2018012
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fem/EN/Y2018/V5/I2/150

Fig.1 Illustration of a Cartesian coordinate plane

Fig.2 A redacted version of Priestley's Chart of Biography (1765).

Fig.3 Joseph Priestley's A New Chart of History (1769)

Fig.4 One of Playfair’s Charts from the 1821 edition of his Atlas (^{Tufte, 1983})

Fig.5 A diagram from the report of the Royal Commissioners on the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Fig.6 A representation of a Harmonygraph (^{Moder et al., 1983})

Fig.7 The bar chart created by Herman Schürch in 1912 (^{Schürch, 1915})

Fig.8 A section of a ‘real’ Gantt Chart showing planned production per day and the cumulative total [numbers], the % production achieved each day as a thin line [Thursday achieved more than planned] and the cumulative total for the week (thick line). (^{Clark, 1923})

Fig.9 Steel Delivery Schedule for the Empire State Building (^{Willis and Friedman, 1998})

Fig.10 Cost v Duration derived from CPM modeling (^{Kelley and Walker, 1989})

Fig.11 Part of the Topological Construction Schedule of the George Fisher Works, 24 July 1957 (^{Kelley and Walker, 1989})

1	Adamiecki K (1931). Harmonygraph. Przeglad Organizacji (Organizational Review)
2	Ball N (2016). St. Michael – identifying the mysterious ship from 1669. , 2018–1–25
3	CIOB (2008). Managing the risk of delayed completion in the 21st century. Bracknell: Chartered Institute of Building
4	Clark W (1923). The Gantt Chart, A Working Tool for Management.New York: The Ronald Press Company
5	Dantzig G B (1949). Programming in a linear structure. Econometrica, 17: 73–74
6	Dauben J (2018). Early applications of linear perspective., 2018–1–25
7	Edwards I E S (1993). The Pyramids of Egypt. Baltimore: Penguine Books
8	Fondahl J W (1961). A non-computer approach to the critical path method for the construction industry. Stanford: Stanford University
9	Fondahl J W (1987). The history of modern project management. Precedence diagramming methods: origins and early development. Project Management Journal, 18(2): 33–36
10	Geraldi J, Lechter T (2012). Gantt charts revisited: A critical analysis of its roots and implications to the management of projects today. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 5(4): 578–594 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211268889
11	Gilbreth F B, Gilbreth L M (1921). Process Charts: First Steps in Finding the One Best Way to do Work. New York: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
12	Ifrah G (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. New York: John Wiley & Sones Inc
13	Kelley J E (1957). Computers and operations research in road building. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Operations Research, Computers, and Management Decisions. Cleveland: Case Institute of Technology, 58–63
14	Kelley J E, Walker M R (1989). The origins of CPM – A personal history. PM Network, III(2): 7–22
15	Kozak-Holland M (2011). The History of Project Management. Oshawa: Multi-Media Publications Inc
16	Malcolm D G, Roseboom J H, Clark C E, Fazar W (1959). Application of a technique for research and development program evaluation. Operations Reserach, 7(5): 646–669.
17	Mansfield D F, Wildberger N J (2017). Plimpton 322 is Babylonian exact sexagesimal trigonometry. Historia Mathematica, 44(4): 395–419 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2017.08.001
18	Marsh E R (1976). The harmonogram: an overlooked method of scheduling work. Project Management Quarterly, 7(1): 21–25
19	Moder J J, Phillips C R, Davis E W (1983). Project Management with CPM, PERT and Precedence Diagramming, 3rd ed. New York: van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc
20	Monge G (1798). Descriptive Geometry. Paris: Baudouin
21	Operational Research Society (2018). History of O.R. , 2018–1–25
22	Peters T F (1996). Building the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: The MIT Press
23	Priestly J (1777a). A Description of a Chart of Biography (4th ed).London: J. Johnson
24	Priestly J (1777b). A Description of a New Chart of History, 4th ed. London: J. Johnson
25	Royal Museums Greenwich (2018). The world‘s largest ship model collection., 2018–1–25
26	Schürch H, Züblin E (1915). The construction of the valley crossing at langwies for the electric railway Chur-Arosa. Reinforced Concrete, 229–238 (in German)
27	Sheps A (1999). Joseph Priestley’s time charts: The use and teaching of history by rational dissent in late Eighteenth-Century England. Érudit, 18: 135–154
28	Smith C B (2004). How the Great Pyramid was Built. New York: HarperCollins Publishers
29	St Paul’s Cathedral (2018). The Great Model. , 2018–1–25
29	Tufte E R (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.Cheshire: Graphics Press
30	Weaver P (2006). A brief history of scheduling – Back to the future. In: Proceedings of myPrimavera Conference. Canberra
31	Weaver P (2007). The origins of modern project management. In: Proceedings of Fourth Annual PMI College of Scheduling Conference. Vancouver
32	Weaver P (2012). Henry L Gantt, 1861–1919 – A retrospective view of his work. PM World Journal, I(V)
33	Weaver P (2013). Where did the misuse of the names Gantt and PERT originate? PM World Journal, II(IV)
34	Weaver P (2014a). The origins of bar charting. PM World Journal, III(III)
35	Weaver P (2014b). Project governance & control – The building of the crystal palace. PM World Journal, III(IV)
36	Weaver P (2014c). The origins of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) calendar. PM World Journal, III(VII)
37	Weaver P (2017). Projects controls using integrated data. In: Proceedings of the PMI Virtual Scheduling Conference 2017
38	Willis C, Friedman D (1998). Building the Empire State Building. New York: W.W. Norton and Company

[1]	Fikri KUCUKSAYACIGIL, Gündüz ULUSOY. Hybrid genetic algorithm for bi-objective resource-constrained project scheduling[J]. Front. Eng, 2020, 7(3): 426-446.
[2]	Fupei LI, Minglei YANG, Wenli DU, Xin DAI. Development and challenges of planning and scheduling for petroleum and petrochemical production[J]. Front. Eng, 2020, 7(3): 373-383.
[3]	Yuan BIAN, David LEMOINE, Thomas G. YEUNG, Nathalie BOSTEL. Two-level uncapacitated lot-sizing problem considering the financing cost of working capital requirement[J]. Front. Eng, 2020, 7(2): 248-258.
[4]	Sameh Al-SHIHABI, Mohammad AlDURGAM. Multi-objective optimization for the multi-mode finance-based project scheduling problem[J]. Front. Eng, 2020, 7(2): 223-237.
[5]	Lei ZHOU, Zhe LIANG, Chun-An CHOU, Wanpracha Art CHAOVALITWONGSE. Airline planning and scheduling: Models and solution methodologies[J]. Front. Eng, 2020, 7(1): 1-26.
[6]	Juan LIU, Fei QIAO, Yumin MA, Weichang KONG. Novel slack-based robust scheduling rule for a semiconductor manufacturing system with uncertain processing time[J]. Front. Eng, 2018, 5(4): 507-514.
[7]	Lingxuan LIU, Zhongshun SHI, Leyuan SHI. Minimization of total energy consumption in an m-machine flow shop with an exponential time-dependent learning effect[J]. Front. Eng, 2018, 5(4): 487-498.
[8]	Marcel JOLY, Darci ODLOAK, Mario Y. MIYAKE, Brenno C. MENEZES, Jeffrey D. KELLY. Refinery production scheduling toward Industry 4.0[J]. Front. Eng, 2018, 5(2): 202-213.
[9]	Mario VANHOUCKE. Planning projects with scarce resources: Yesterday, today and tomorrow’s research challenges[J]. Front. Eng, 2018, 5(2): 133-149.
[10]	Jiateng YIN, Yihui WANG, Tao TANG, Jing XUN, Shuai SU. Metro train rescheduling by adding backup trains under disrupted scenarios[J]. Front. Eng, 2017, 4(4): 418-427.
[11]	Marcel JOLY, Mario Y. MIYAKE. Lessons learned from developing and implementing refinery production scheduling technologies[J]. Front. Eng, 2017, 4(3): 325-337.
[12]	Braulio BRUNAUD, Ignacio E. GROSSMANN. Perspectives in multilevel decision-making in the process industry[J]. Front. Eng, 2017, 4(3): 256-270.
[13]	Wen-wu Yang. Study of Sustainable Urban Rail Transit Development Model in China[J]. Front. Eng, 2014, 1(2): 195-201.

Viewed

Full text

Abstract

Cited

Shared

Discussed