Roland W. Gutsch (3 November 1925 - 20 February 2009) was a German

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

at the German aircraft manufacturer

Dornier Dornier may refer to: * Claudius Dornier (1884–1969), German aircraft designer and builder ** Dornier Flugzeugwerke, German aircraft manufacturer founded in 1914 by Claudius Dornier * Dornier Consulting, international consulting and project manag ...

, known as co-founder and President of the International Project Management Association,IPMA, ''IPMA, 50 years - Building Bridges Worldwide,'' Panama Edition, 2015. p. 110 and the GMP Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e.V.Reschke, Hasso, and Heinz Schelle, eds. Dimensions of project management: fundamentals, techniques, organization, applications. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013. p. vii

Life and work

Gutsch was born in 1925 in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, as son of a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

. His education was interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in which he had to take part and suffered wounds on multiple occasions. After the ending of the war obtained a degree in

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

. Gutsch started his career in industry in 1950 in the time of the

reconstruction of Germany The reconstruction of Germany was the process of rebuilding Germany after the destruction endured during World War II. Germany suffered heavy losses during the war, both in lives and industrial power. Approximately 6.9 to 7.5 million Germans died, ...

. He eventually was employed as engineer at

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

, where he spend the rest of his career. With Pierre Koch, Yves Eugene, Dick Vullinghs, Arnold Kaufmann and others in 1965 he co-founded INTERNET, a platform for

project management Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...

, today's IPMA International Project Management Association. In 1979 he was the initiator and co-founder of the GMP Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e.V. (GPM). He was, among others, President of the 6th International World Congress for Project Management in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He served as President of the International Project Management Association first from 1976 to 1979 as successor of

Olof Hörberg Olof Hörberg (13 June 1921 – 23 Nov 1988) was a Swedish engineer from Stockholm, known as co-founder of the International Project Management Association, and its first president from 1972 to 1976. Hörberg had obtained his MSc in engineering fr ...

, and from 1979 to 1982. After the Danish

Steen Lichtenberg Steen Lichtenberg (1930-2019) is a Danish engineer, Emeritus Professor of Project and Construction Management at the Technical University of Denmark, author and management consultant. He is known from his 1978 textbook on new project management, whi ...

and British Eric Gabriel, he served a third time from 1988 to 1991. For his involvement in

, he was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in 1991.GPM.
Über Roland Gutsch
" at gpm-ipma.de. Accessed 26-06-2017 He was honorary chairman of the GPM, who initiated an award is his name, the Roland Gutsch Project Management Award.

Reception

Reinhard Wagner, in an appreciation of Roland Gutsch, described the role of Gutsch as engineer in the emerging field of project management as follows: :"Roland W. Gutsch was a German engineer who very early dived into the at that time miraculous world of computing. When he entered DORNIER (at that time a famous German aerospace company, now part of

AIRBUS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

) he was immediately confronted with Project Management and what support computers could offer for planning and control of complex aerospace projects. He developed at that time famous PPS (

Project Planning Project planning is part of project management, which relates to the use of schedules such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within the project environment. Project planning can be done manually or by the use of project ma ...

and Control System) based on network technology (PERT, CPM) and which was then used in the German industry. With his widened view on how to manage projects he substantially contributed to the development of the modern Project Management concept as we know it nowadays..."Reihard Wagner.
Roland W. Gutsch - One of the founders of IPMA (formerly INTERNET)
" at ''blog.ipma.world.'' Accessed 26-06-2017 In 2013 Reschke and Schelle dedicated their book "Dimensions of project management: fundamentals, techniques, organization, applications" to Roland Gutsch. They stated: :"Roland W. Gutsch nurtured the project management idea like a living plant from the time it was identified only with network technique and aerospace and military uses to the point where it was recognized as an internationally used management discipline. INTERNET, as an international organisation of national project management groups realized under his leadership international congresses for project management, seminars for specialists, exchange of expert knowledge and technical technical literature. It was always important for Roland W. Gutsch to bring together people from various branches, various projects and various cultures. His concern was to emphasize the common interest without suppressing the individual."

Selected publications

* Gutsch, Roland W. ''Entscheidungshilfe durch Systemtechnik.'' 1972. * Dworatschek, Sebastian, and Roland Gutsch. "Wandel der Themenschwerpunkte der internationalen Konferenzen von INTERNET und PMI (USA)." (1987): 23-33. * Gutsch, Roland W., Hasso Reschke, and Heinz Schelle. ''Proceedings of the 6th Internet Congress 1979.'' Vol. 2. VDI-Verlag, 1979. * Gutsch, Roland W. ''Dimensions of project management: fundamentals, techniques, organization, applications; publication in honour of Roland W. Gutsch.'' Springer, 1990. * Dworatschek, Sebastian, and Roland Gutsch. "A Multi-Media Training in Project Management Draft for a German-Russian Joint Venture TV-Project." ''Proceedings of the 11th INTERNET World Congress in Florence, Milano. 1992.'' * Gutsch, Roland W. "Ein Beitrag über die Entwicklung und Gestaltung des Projektmanagements." ''Innovative Managementaufgaben in der nationalen und internationalen Praxis.'' Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 2001. 23-27.

References

External links

Roland W. Gutsch: GPM-Gründer feierte 80. Geburtstag
at archive.org.
Roland W. Gutsch - One of the founders of IPMA (formerly INTERNET)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutsch, Roland W. 1925 births 2009 deaths Engineers from Karlsruhe Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany