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What Makes A Project Complex?
A practitioner`s view on global project complexity today and how to manage it.
Date : 14/11/2016
Author Information
Uploaded by : Neil
Uploaded on : 14/11/2016
Subject : Project Management
Managing Complex ProjectsThe below observations are
purely personal, distilled from my experiences managing a diverse range of
complex IT projects in 17 countries, during the past 20 years. What makes a Project Complex?There are a myriad of
factors that may contribute to project complexity. The five factors
(not in order) that have contributed most complexity to the projects that I
have encountered are as follows: 1. Technical Complexity:Historically, much of the
complexity in managing IT projects was perceived as being related to technical
complexity. In reality, much complexity emanated from the immaturity of the IT
industry, and the resultant absence of education, organisation and standards.
The existing body of knowledge was limited. However, as the IT industry has
matured, so too has the associated body of knowledge. As a result, despite the
exponential rate of technology development, my observation is that technical
complexity is less of a project risk than ever before. 2. Business Complexity:Business complexity often
exists as an element of complex projects. Business success in today`s global
marketplace demands agility and the ability to rapidly transform business
models. Business change is omnipresent and adds complexity to projects. 3. Globalisation:Today we have transitioned
to a global marketplace. Dealing with the cultural and logistical complexities
of global projects is commonplace for today`s Project Manager. An
enterprise-wide initiative may well, these days, cut across diverse and
disparate cultures, languages, time zones, geographies, systems and processes. We
therefore face new challenges: "That`s not how we
share data here in Sweden.'lt;/p>"That escalation model
won`t work here in Spain.
Our business process is different.'lt;/p>"We must deploy
globally by Saturday, Sunday is a business day in Tel Aviv.'lt;/p> 4. Virtual Teams:One key trend to emerge
during the past decade has been the development of virtual, often
geographically dispersed, project teams. Virtual teams add complexity to
project management. Consider this challenge a
Global Field Services application development project. With outsourced
developers in New York and India, database administrators in San Diego, business analysts in London,
the project sponsor in Germany,
a test team in Vienna
and a globally dispersed (15 countries) customer workforce. I was project
managing from a dual base of London and Melbourne. Collaboration
tools such as Groove/Sharepoint software and scheduled conference calls across
time zones became crucial components of the team communication and
trust-building process.
5. Organisational Structure:Increasingly, IT organisations have moved, in varying degrees, to
matrix-based structures, pooling skill-sets and formalising the process of
project resource assignments. The result is another derivate of the
"virtual" project team, but in this case not necessarily
geographically dispersed. Again, there is added complexity around project team
communication and trust-building. Occasionally I have been assigned resources
from a matrix organisation whose attitudes have greatly inhibited team morale
and productivity. By contrast, that project teams that I have been empowered to
select have invariably had great spirit and excelled in delivery. Some degree
of organisational structure and process is good and useful. Too much can be
debilitating. The Ultimate ChallengeWe are complex people living in a complex world. Our projects will be
complex. Certainly, within the IT world, there now exist vast, evolving, bodies
of knowledge that can assist with decomposing, analysing and managing technical
complexity in our projects. However, of greater concern to our projects are the
complexities around PEOPLE. In my opinion, it is simple project teams with the right people, right
attitude and right dynamics are likely to succeed. Great morale = great
results. Technical complexities are secondary. The single most important
strategy for managing project complexity is the assembly of a cohesive, loyal
and passionate project team. This is the Project Manager`s
ultimate challenge!
This resource was uploaded by: Neil