Medieval Origins of Project Management: Byzantine to Gothic

Introduction: Project Management and Its Medieval Roots

The contemporary conception of project management is actually the summation of preceding centuries' worth of work and development within this area. Although this discipline was not termed as such until the 1900s, it has slowly evolved much like any other process utilized throughout the course of history, including "building processes" which "have led to the development of project management" and whose basics "can be traced back to these periods of time" (Yuen 383). These time periods encompass the medieval period in Europe and the Near East, and were stratified to include the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic Golden Age, the Crusades, the Carolingian Renaissance, the Romanesque Period, and the Gothic Period, which collectively account for "project management in the medieval societies from the 5th to 15th century" (Yuen 390). In much the same way that many of the research parameters within Project Management in the Medieval Period: From the Byzantine Empire to the Gothic Period borrowed concepts from adjacent and previously existent cultures to further advance aspects of construction and its techniques — vital components of project management in previous time periods — the nature of project management has also "moved in stride with the fluid and changing project environments" (Yuen 383) to refine itself gradually into the firm academic discipline that it is today.

To truly understand the process of this development, one must view the research contained within this study as it specifically applies to project management. The application areas of the projects selected within this study all relate to the construction of architectural monuments, since "the research regards building construction and engineering structures as the application areas of project management" (Yuen 7). These application areas were analyzed in terms of their project management across each of the aforementioned epochs, encompassing construction technologies, traditions of the master builder, building project activities, architectural principles, and specific skills in general management. Moreover, this study found that these application areas are the direct result of specific cultural, scientific, and economic environments, which had a profound influence on the building projects during each respective time period and on the ongoing refinement of project management more broadly. One can therefore posit that the monuments erected during the medieval period symbolize the best of that time period's social-cultural contributions — its zeitgeist — which is why the five application areas and three environmental influences were used as the eight research topics for this study.

Once historians, readers, and project management professionals are able to understand the connection between the design and construction of buildings — which both symbolized and actualized the management of projects during the medieval period — the project management findings of this study become far more lucid. This notion is particularly true for the conception of project management during the medieval period, as the results of this study consistently indicate that "project activities are created to answer the cultural, political, and social needs of current situations through the available body of knowledge — scientific, economic, and management knowledge" (Yuen 384). This statement underscores the overall importance of project management during the medieval period, which was largely a means of addressing and providing for numerous concerns through the construction and usage of edifices. The utilitarian aspects of many works created during these epochs attest to this fact. If one pauses to consider the mosques created during the Islamic Golden Age, which served religious, educational, and social purposes simultaneously, the true reason why the science of project management had to develop becomes abundantly clear. People needed the services provided by it, for many different reasons — a fact demonstrated by the multifaceted purposes of these mosques, in which "such temples and their surrounding cities were not only places of worship, but also a location for communal gathering designed to encourage group identity. They evolved into the political centre of Islamic society" (Yuen 330).

Furthermore, another highly important aspect of this study's findings is in alignment with the fact that project management is only as effective as the surrounding environment that professionals have to work within. The veracity of this statement was readily demonstrated by the notion that project management is largely reliant upon "scientific, economic, and management knowledge." The findings of this study prove that this body of knowledge is the means of facilitating project management, which is also in accordance with contemporary standards. Indeed, "effective project management requires that the project management team understands and uses knowledge from at least five areas of expertise" (PMBOK, Chapter 1). Even in contemporary times, therefore, project management is largely facilitated by the proper implementation of knowledge.

What is most significant about these findings — and the value placed upon environmental knowledge in project management — is that for the contemporary project manager, the true nature of the profession is revealed through the results of this study. This discipline is actually about facilitating solutions to the myriad needs of society, in whatever capacity or organization a particular project manager is involved. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that such solutions can often be multifaceted and help people in more than one way. Project management is actually the reflection of political, social, and above all cultural needs, and it provides viable responses to those needs. In much the same way that "there is a mutual and dynamic interaction between cultural, scientific and economic forces, and building project activities" (Yuen 375), there is a highly similar interaction between those forces and contemporary project management. Most often, these forces serve to create the environment that influences the solutions project managers devise, and they play a substantial role in the nature and efficacy of such solutions.

Additionally, this study has clearly revealed that the contemporary project manager can ultimately find the basis of his or her occupation in the master builder tradition. There are too many parallels between these two professions for the former not to have descended from the latter. Many of the principles of management and communication that contemporary project managers utilize are reminiscent of those master builders, who facilitated building projects by acting as "the palpable link between a number of vital entities that included most saliently, communication from the client… and the labourers who were actually doing the building" (Yuen 371). This fact is probably the most noteworthy finding of the entire study, at least in terms of contemporary project management. It alludes to the notion that this profession has been practiced long before the current name for it was coined, and that in all regards the master builder was the project manager who would eventually document plans to educate others about techniques of project management (Yuen 371).