ABSTRACT
The concept of a project manager is a recent one despite the existence of projects throughout history. Projects have already been defined as one-off activities with a well understood end-goal, and that fact alone might have warranted the creation of project managers but historically it did not; it would seem that architects, engineers and even priests were able to encompass all the management activities that were necessary within their own disciplines and daily routines. The project structure calls upon all the disciplines but the project manager must work through the functional heads. The 'project' challenges the conventional structure but it does not replace it, rather it co-exists with it but that existence can be uneasy. The project manager, however, exists outside the conventional structure yet has both responsibility and authority. People need the stimulus of a target or goal; there may be a number of these at various points in the project.
