Early civilizations

• 2570 BC
  26th century BC
  The 26th century BC is a century which lasted from the year 2600 BC to 2501 BC .-Events:*c. 2900 BC – 2334 BC: Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period continue....
  
   Great pyramid of Giza
  Great Pyramid of Giza
  The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact...
  
   completed. Some records remain of how the work was managed: e.g. there were managers of each of the four faces of the pyramid, responsible for their completion (subproject managers).
• 208 BC The first major construction of the Great Wall of China
  Great Wall of China
  The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
  
  .

15th - 19th century

• Christopher Wren
  Christopher Wren
  Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...
  
   (1632–1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, mathematician-physicist and one of the greatest English architect
  Architect
  An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
  
  s in history. Wren designed 55 of 87 London churches after the Great fire of London in 1666, including St Paul's Cathedral
  St Paul's Cathedral
  St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
  
   in 1710, as well as many secular buildings of note.
• Thomas Telford
  Thomas Telford
  Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
  
   (1757-1834) was a Scottish stonemason, architect and civil engineer and a noted road, bridge and canal builder, who for example managed the Ellesmere Canal
  Ellesmere Canal
  The Ellesmere Canal was a canal in England and Wales, originally planned to link the Rivers Mersey, Dee, and Severn, by running from Netherpool to Shrewsbury. The canal that was eventually constructed was very different from what was originally envisioned...
  
   and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
  Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
  The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wrexham in north east Wales....
  
  .
• Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
  
   (1806–1859) was a British engineer best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway
  Great Western Railway
  The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
  
  , a series of famous steamships, including the first with a propeller, and numerous important bridge
  Bridge
  A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
  
  s and tunnel
  Tunnel
  A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
  
  s.

20th century

• 1910s The Gantt Chart
  Gantt chart
  A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts...
  
   developed by Henry Laurence Gantt (1861–1919)

• 1950s The Critical path method
  Critical path method
  The critical path method is an algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is an important tool for effective project management.-History:...
  
   (CPM) invented
• 1950s The US DoD
  United States Department of Defense
  The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
  
   used modern project management techniques in their Polaris project
  UGM-27 Polaris
  The Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fuel nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile built during the Cold War by Lockheed Corporation of California for the United States Navy....
  
  .
• 1956 The American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International
  AACE International
  AACE International was founded in 1956 by 59 cost estimators and cost engineers during the organizational meeting of the American Association of Cost Engineering at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire. AACE International Headquarters is located in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA...
  
  ) formed
• 1958 The Program Evaluation and Review Technique
  Program Evaluation and Review Technique
  The Program ' Evaluation and Review Technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a statistical tool, used in project management, that is designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project...
  
   (PERT) method invented

• 1965 International Project Management Association
  International Project Management Association
  The International Project Management Association is a non-profit, Swiss registered organization for the promotion of project management internationally...
  
   (IPMA) established as International Management Systems Association (IMSA)
• 1969 Project Management Institute
  Project Management Institute
  The Project Management Institute is a not-for-profit professional organization for the project management profession with the purpose of advancing project management.- Overview :...
  
   (PMI) launched to promote project management profession

• 1975 PROMPTII methodology created by Simpact Systems Ltd (source: PRINCE2 manual)
• 1975 The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
  The Mythical Man-Month
  The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering is a book on software engineering and project management by Fred Brooks, whose central theme is that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later"...
  
  by Fred Brooks
  Fred Brooks
  Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. is a software engineer and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month...
  
   published

• 1984 The Goal
  The Goal
  The Goal is a management-oriented novel by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a business consultant whose Theory of Constraints has become a model for systems management. It was originally published in 1984 and has since been revised and republished every few years, once in 1992 and again in 2004...
  
  by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
  Eliyahu M. Goldratt
  Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt was an Israeli physicist who became a business management guru. He was the originator of the Optimized Production Technology, the Theory of Constraints , the Thinking Processes, Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management and other TOC derived tools.He authored...
  
   published
• 1986 Scrum was named as a project management style in the article The New New Product Development Game by Takeuchi and Nonaka
• 1987 First Project Management Body of Knowledge
  Project Management Body of Knowledge
  A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge is a book which presents a set of standard terminology and guidelines for project management. The Fourth Edition was recognized by the American National Standards Institute as an American National Standard...
  
   Guide published as a white paper by PMI
• 1989 PRINCE method derived from PROMPTII is published by the UK Government agency CCTA and becomes the UK standard for all government information projects

• 1996 PRINCE2
  PRINCE2
  PRojects IN Controlled Environments 2 is a structured project management method endorsed by the UK government as the project management standard for public projects. The methodology encompasses the management, control and organisation of a project...
  
   published by CCTA (now OGC) as a generic product management methodology for all UK government projects.
• 1997 Critical Chain
  Critical chain
  Critical chain project management is a method of planning and managing projects that puts the main emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks. It was developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. This is in contrast to the more traditional critical path and PERT methods, which emphasize task...
  
  by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
  Eliyahu M. Goldratt
  Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt was an Israeli physicist who became a business management guru. He was the originator of the Optimized Production Technology, the Theory of Constraints , the Thinking Processes, Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management and other TOC derived tools.He authored...
  
   published

21st century

• 2001 AgileAlliance formed to promote "lightweight" software development projects
• 2006 Total Cost Management
  Total cost management
  Total cost management is the name given by AACE International to a process for applying the skills and knowledge of cost engineering. It is also the first integrated process or methodology for portfolio, program and project management. AACE first introduced the concept in the 1990s and published...
  
   Framework release by AACE
  AACE International
  AACE International was founded in 1956 by 59 cost estimators and cost engineers during the organizational meeting of the American Association of Cost Engineering at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire. AACE International Headquarters is located in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA...
  
  
• 2009 PRINCE2 2009 edition, compatible with other methods and more flexible in approach