Agile, from the Stone Age: a brief history of People and Project Management practices

Many of us start our careers with Agile as the default project management approach.. While we focus on engineering, user needs, and product development, which are essential, it’s easy to overlook a critical question: Why do we work this way?We’ve all heard, “We use Agile because it’s better than Waterfall.” Most of us are satisfied with this answer and continue with our sprint planning, 1:1s, and busy schedules. But have you ever wondered: Why was there a Waterfall in the first place? What came before that? And did people organise into 5-7 people cross functional teams in past centuries?This talk dives into the history of people and project management, tracing the practices that have shaped how we work today and the context, the time, in which those practices emerged. We’ll explore how people throughout history managed projects, structured work, and navigated change.