It originated in the handling of classified information in military and intelligence applications.
It dates back to antiquity, and was successfully used to keep the secret of Greek fire.
[1] The basis for compartmentalization is the idea that, if fewer people know the details of a mission or task, the risk or likelihood that such information will be compromised or fall into the hands of the opposition is decreased.
[2] Compartmentalization is now also used in commercial security engineering as a technique to protect information such as medical records.
Personnel at Oak Ridge constructed and operated centrifuges to isolate uranium-235 from naturally occurring uranium, but most did not know exactly what they were doing.