Roland Gutsch

Roland W. Gutsch (3 November 1925 - 20 February 2009) was a German engineer at the German aircraft manufacturer Dornier, known as co-founder and President of the International Project Management Association, and the GMP Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e.V.

Life and work Gutsch was born in 1925 in Karlsruhe, as son of a physician. His education was interrupted by World War II, 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. 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) 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 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..."

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.