Introducing the Project Controller

When project management first entered the business vernacular in the 1950s and early 1960s, early adopters of project management initiatives included the construction and utilities industries as well as major defense programs. These large, bureaucratic, command-and-control organizations focused on project planning and controls and utilized tools such as Gantt charts, network diagrams and PERT. Since then, countless new industry trends have emerged. Organizations have flattened out, matrixed organizations have taken root, and new information technology has allowed people to communicate more effectively and reduce cycle times across all business processes. As a result, management began pushing more projects onto an increasingly complex organization and the project manager suddenly became the “Jack-of-All-Trades” — forced to be everything to everyone. The role of project manager is now very demanding, and requires an ever-expanding arsenal of skills, especially “soft” or interpersonal skills.

Most recently, industry professionals have noticed a powerful new trend sweeping the world of project management: the separation of duties within the project manager role.