When was the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) developed?

The Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) was developed in the 1950s, specifically in 1958, as a project management tool to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. PERT was created for the U.S. Navy’s Polaris submarine project, and its purpose was to facilitate decision-making under uncertainty by incorporating variability in project scheduling. The technique introduces a systematic approach to estimating the duration of project tasks, allowing project managers to identify the minimum time needed to complete a project, analyze the time required to complete each individual task, and understand the dependencies between tasks. This made PERT particularly valuable in complex projects with interrelated activities, which became increasingly common in the post-World War II era during the 1950s.

Choosing the correct decade is important as it reflects the origins of modern project management strategies and the evolving understanding of project dynamics during that period.