One way to gain perspective on projects of today is to compare them with
projects of the past. In some ways, projects remain the same as they have
always been, and in some ways, project management has evolved over the
ages. Let us review a few projects from history where enough evidence has
been gained through research and historical records to make some project
management comparisons.
Project: Building the Egyptian Great Pyramid at Giza
One of the first major undertakings that project managers clearly identify
as a project is the construction of the great pyramid at Giza. There is some
historical evidence—we could call it project history—that gives us insight
into its scope and effort.
Project records exist in the writings of Greek philosophers, Egyptian
hieroglyphics, and archeological findings. High-level estimates of time and
effort “in the press” during that period were apparently inaccurate.
Herodotus wrote that the pyramid took 100,000 people 30 years to complete.
Archeological research and records pare those estimates to 20,000
people and 20 years to complete. Hieroglyphics in the tombs reveal some
of the methods (technical approaches and tools) used to construct the pyramid:
Stone blocks were carved from a quarry by hand using stone hammers
and chisels. Then the stones were slid on pallets of wood over wet sand, and
workers used wooden beams as levers to heft them into the desired position.
The team, according to research, was not 100,000 people, as originally
recorded by Herodotus; that would have been approximately 10 percent
of the entire population of Egypt—and more than 3 million effort-years. It
was more likely 20,000 people, 2,000 of whom were continuous in their
service (the core team) and 18,000 of whom were tracked by DNA evidence
in bones on the site to villages all over Egypt. If we were to translate their
structure into a modern context, this would correspond to a core team (the
ancient group of continuous service) with various team members temporarily
assigned as resources from the departments (the ancient villages)
in the sponsor’s organization (the ancient dynasty). The work shift was long
in those days; the team rotation was about 12 weeks. At that point the workers
on loan to the project went home and were replaced by new workers.
The power of the project sponsor was very helpful in getting such a
huge project done. The project sponsor was executive management (the
pharaoh also was viewed as “god”—making it easier to get permission to
leave the family and village job to work on the assignment). The work was hard, there were occupational hazards (bone damage), and the pay was low
(including fresh onions for lunch). People who died on the project were
buried on the project site (hence the DNA evidence to trace their villages).3
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