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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

Neil

Uploaded by : Neil
Uploaded on : 14/11/2016
Subject : Project Management

Managing Complex Projects

The 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 Challenge

We 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