Lessons from History Series

Series Audience

Primarily business and IT professionals looking for inspiration for their projects. Specifically, Project Managers (PMs) responsible for delivering business solutions through projects, or business managers responsible for solving business problems.

The term project manager may not have existed even in the 19th century but the role on major (mega) projects through history has always been fulfilled by an individual but under a different title. Engineers, architects, masterbuilders, sponsors have all played a leadership role with projects.   "The first engineers were irrigators, architects, and military engineers. The same man was usually expected to be an expert at all three kinds of work. This was still the case thousands of years later, in the Renaissance, when Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Dürer were not only all-around engineers but outstanding artists as well. Specialization within the engineering profession has developed only in the last two or three centuries." Source Paul Allen   Right up to the medieval period the master mason had two responsibilities, that of an architect, as in designer, and a builder, as in the contractor. In the middle ages the builders of catapults, battering rams, and engines of war were referred to ingeniators by Latin writers.

"If we think of today's Information Technology as the emerging technology of our time then there are many lessons for businesses today to take from these historical projects."

What are the Benefits of the Series to the Reader?   

The series looks at historical projects and:  Outlines the project background, drivers (business), financials, and return on investments.  Defines how these projects were managed, the approach, and methods.  Looks at challenges and accomplishments with examples of phases, results, or tasks.  Investigates alternatives, options available, and key decision making that took place.  Examines deliverables (outputs) and works backwards as to how these were achieved.  Provides analogies of problem solving using emerging technologies and their application.    Lessons-from-History mines the historical project for best practices. As a result it:  Shows how emerging technology had a breakthrough effectin solving problems.  Establishes the, heroes (and villains) and the role they played in the project.  Makes a experience memorable by looking at the challenges through the character's eyes.  Increases audience experience through a riveting tale and lesson expressed compellingly.  Provides a low cost way of training.   In today's world many projects are run as complex programs that may take 3 to 5 years to complete. For example, within corporations the customization, integration, and implementation of a complex software solution (like Customer Relationship Management, or Enterprise Resource Planning), or a journey to an Adaptive Enterprise.   As a result, the benefits may not be fully understood or realized until later into the program, and these are very difficult to visualize early on. But a historical analogy demonstrates not only the end-state of the solution but the journey to it (read more about creating visions to understand the benefits of the project in visions of the future taken from the past).   A good historical example of this is the of the 1960's which was a series of evolutionary projects within a complex program that lasted close to a decade. When President Kennedy set the program objective in 1963 there was no clear mental picture of how this would be done, and what it would look like. The vision would have to be evolved step by step.   After the initial objective of putting a "man on the moon" was achieved in 1969 the U.S. space program found itself it rapid decline as public interest waned, and funding dried up. There were several factors but a significant one was the lack of a clear next step, or mission. Hence, the importance of setting a vision, and evolving it as the program progresses and lessons are learned.   Today the spin offs of the U.S. Space Program are well recognized having driven several technological revolutions like that in microelectronics, and material sciences. With better foresight and project management the U.S. Space Program could have continued at the same pace of the 1960's into the 1970's and acted as a catalyst for creating emerging technologies.   Similarly, in today's business world complexities abound: "Building high-quality, industrial strength software is difficult. Indeed, it has been argued that developing such software in domains like telecommunications, industrial control, and business process management represents one of the most complex construction tasks humans undertake."  Source: WHY AGENT-ORIENTED APPROACHES ARE WELL SUITED FOR DEVELOPING COMPLEX, DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS. Nicholas R. Jennings;    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~nrj/download-files/cacm01.pdf

Examples of Historical Projects 

The source of historical projects for the series is made up of constructions, inventions, expeditions, and achievements that were all firsts.

Many projects were races which resulted in both failures and successes, for example:                                                                                                                  First mechanical computer, circa 1840-1890. First telephone, circa 1876. First manned powered flight, circa 1903. First to the South Pole, circa 1911. First luxury transatlantic liner, circa 1912. First major air battle, circa 1940. First electronic computer, circa 1943. First manned lunar landing, circa 1970.

 Read further about the site's collection of great and memorable projects of the past. The lists are all subjective and based on the site author's views. 

How Can the Reader Learn from the Series?