Characteristics of Complex Project Management
Question:
Discuss About The Examining Moderating Effects Of Knowledge?
Project management can be considered as an application of the methods, processes, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve the objectives of the project. In general, it can be stated that a project can be considered unique and undertaken to achieve certain objectives, which are planned. This could be easily be defined within the terms of outcomes, outputs or benefits. A project is termed as successful if it archives the objectives about the criteria of acceptance within an agreed budget and timescale. The concept, which distinguishes normal management with project management, is that the project management have a finite timespan and a final delivery. Project management needs technical skills and certain type of people with management skills and good awareness of the business framework. Nearly all small projects and large projects exhibit the characteristics of complicity. It can be stated that the complexity in a project management process can be due to the factor of the risk factors, which are associated with it (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017).
The main aim of the report is to take into consideration the concept of the complex project management. The reason, which is applicable behind a project, is termed as a complex project are majorly discussed in the report. In a complex project scenario, the role of the project manager is very much important. Few of the case studies are also taken into consideration in the report, which puts forward the aspect, which is related to complex project.
The concept of complex project have many parameters, variables involved into it. Complexity of a project cannot be defined as the size of the project; it can be seen in most of the large project scenarios the complexity factor does not exist. If the different parts of the project can work independently without interacting, it cannot be termed as a complex project. In this concept, the best practice that should be followed is making the different teams work together parallel without taking much concern on what other team are working upon. The task is executed independent. Secondly, it can be stated that complexity cannot be same as project risk and uncertainty. Preparing for the factor of uncertainty can be considered to be very much crucial in the aspect for example if the project in proper condition takes 4 days to execute and on the other hand 9 days to execute in worst conditions, having a bugger plan is very much important. The factor of the complexity is directly related with the concept of interactions. It is well known that the issue which with the complexity can be caused by some technical system of interacting physical components. However, the sources of complexity may come from various sectors, which are stated below:
- Technical complexity: The concept of the interaction related to the components of the system may cause inter dependencies among the various tasks in the project.
- External complexity: The project in many cases may touch multiple market segments and can be influenced by the factor of regulation in multiple domain and regions.
- Actor complexity: Many of the stakeholders who are interested in the project may have different dimensions and different wanting relating to the project, which may be contradictory. In this case, one stakeholder can influence another stakeholder.
The Role of Project Manager in Complex Project Management
The sources, which are related to the complexity, can be various, uncertain and very much dynamic. The difficulty, which is faced in defining the concept of complexity, can be minimized through the identification of the key drivers, which are related to it. Key driver’s definition can be considered not so easy taking into consideration field, which are related to the project management or in any other domain. The main problem, which is faced in this scenario, is the lack of agreement on the drivers of complexity and understanding, which is very little between the drivers. The environment and the context of the project factors, which change the drivers of the project. Considering any project the complexity of the project can be composed of many complexities for example distinction, which can lead to efficient management of the project.
- The project usually have a large number of systems that need to be matched and put together or matched with a number of interfaces.
- This type of project usually contain many details relating to how the project should be executed.
- The project requires efficient control, coordinating and monitoring from the start to end of the project.
- These type of project deals with intricacy, which can be very much difficult to specify onto how to reach the project goals and the time, which would be involved in it.
- The project require logical link due to the factor that a complex project usually encounters revision which is made periodically and with the factor of interrelations between the different activities it becomes difficult to update the schedule successfully in an efficient manner.
The concept of project environment mainly includes the latest state of art technology in which the project are based upon. The factors, which can be included in the scenario, are social, economic and political setting. These factors affect the organizing, planning, staffing and the concept of directing which is mainly directed and is the responsibility of the project manager. These environmental aspects represent a set of complex inter- dependent relationships, which directly and constantly react with the project as it is brought into reality. It can be stated here at almost all projects impact the environment in some way or the other and this can be true for infrastructure projects. Therefore, in order to make a project successful all these factors should be taken into consideration.
The above stated factors can change during the projects execution project. This is due to the factor if the project takes a number of years to complete and is brought in the phases of on stream. This majorly translates into a high degree of risk, which is uncertain about the surrounding of the project because of the external environment. The environment in each and every project us not the same. The project environment is likely to be determined by three considerations namely:
- The manner of the application and the technology.
- The service and the product, which is result of the project.
- The physical location of the project.
When relating to the properties of a project management system, which are termed as complex it can be stated that difficult project could not be termed as complex project. There are many factors which are involved in this scenario that a project can be stated as complex. The following points would explain what are the properties related to the project being complex:
- Numerous moving part: Many of the projects have multiple work streams and strands, which makes them complex. The project have multiple tasks in hand whose proper execution could be a problem.
- Project timeline: Project timeline can be considered as one of the most vital aspect in any project management scenario. Short timelines and immovable dates can make the project complex. There can be many factors, which can make the timeline of the project difficult to reach for example unavailability of the developers when relating to software development project. In some cases, it can be seen that in order to reach the time constraints the projects quality are compromised.
- Involvement of many stakeholders and team: Complexity in the concept of the project can arise due to the involvement of more people. This can also be from the end of the customer where there are more than one stakeholders. These stakeholders are involved in the concept of the project. There can also be a mix group of supplier
- Budget and other constraints: During the initiation of the project, the budget of the project is taken into consideration. If the budget of the project is not taken into consideration or not meet it can lead to increase in the complexity. The budget of the project can affect the organization as well as the stakeholders. The organization is liable to be answerable to the stakeholders about why the budget constraints are not meet.
Key Drivers of Complexity in Project Management
The tools, which are related to the concept of the complex project, can be helpful in this type of project management scenarios (Lientz and Rea 2016). In this case, the project managers play an important role based on the past knowledge. They decide how to proceed with the project and what approach should be used for the project and the best time to use them. The tools, which can be used, are stated below:
The main purpose of the Work breakdown Structure can be helpful in planning the project by means of breaking down the project into different parts. This is mainly done to make the project more manageable and smaller to work with. WBS provides a task in the form of detailed list, which is to be performed in the project. This facilitates in delivery better scheduling, costing and resource planning for the project. The concept of the Cost breakdown structure lists each item, which is classified, and its expenditure for the project in order to get more detailed estimation relating to cost.
- Can be helpful in scheduling and sequencing of the project of different events, which improves the effectiveness of how the time is calculated. For example, the most efficient sequence, which can be used to accomplish activity, can be understood.
- Can be used to delegate and allocate responsibility to directly accomplish different activities or task, e.g. greater accountability through better control.
- Improves resource efficiency and planning of how the consumption of the resources should be done for example accurate forecast of the project staffing to save cost.
- It can be used for the basics of financial “exception reporting” for example actual allowance of the budget and forecasting the cost of project accurately.
- Can be used for the purpose of management of risk for example identify risk as an ongoing process for monitoring risk, which are related to the project.
A Gantt chart can be considered as a horizontal bar, which can be used for project scheduling. Over time, each block represents an activity. The actual performance is recorded in real time, which is compared with the estimated time. This process is very much essential for achieving completion of the project. Taking into consideration an IT project the Gantt chart comprise of start data, end date and duration of each of the task.
The following pints states why the concept of Gantt chart is used as a tool:
- It can be utilized for planning of the time scale of the project. Time scale in any project is very much vital as if the time is not matched it can affect the overall working of the project.
- It can be applied for the estimating the resources which are required for the project.
- It represents a graphical representation of the schedule of task which has to be completed
- It does not work for complex project it mainly suits situation where the tasks or activity are small (De Leoz and Petter 2014).
Taking into consideration projects, which are lengthy, and complex the Gantt chart does not work well. In large project a high factor of high interdependency between the various tasks do exist. In this case, it can be stated that a task cannot start until other task in the queue are completed (Weiss, Newell and Swan 2017). The concept of Gantt chart are less desirable due to the factor that it does not display or indicate the interdependencies. The network analysis can directly display the concept more logically involving timing and sequence of each of the activity related to the project. The task communicate independently and more effectively for complex and large projects.
- The interdependent relationship, which exist among different activity in a project, is clearly stated.
- Effective management of time can be achieved from the concept of good visual communication.
- Arranges activity and tasks into a sequence, which is optimum relating to the different events in the project. This allows the project to be completed in a more efficient manner and within the time framework.
- The time, which is related to the elapsed time or estimated time, can be calculated very easily.
- It highlights the float time relating to all the activity of the project for example the amount of time, which a task can slip from the estimated time. Each activity has a slip time, which is involved into it. This is due to the factor that each of the task has to be completed within the completion time, which is planned; otherwise, the elapsed time, which is related to the project, will not be achieved easily (Ahern, Leavy and Byrne 2014).
The technique, which is related to the PERT helps in the process of estimation of the project (Serra, C.E.M. and Kunc 2015). This process can involve any sort of uncertainty, which can be seen during the process of predicting the task duration. In this technique, the project manager can estimate the worst, best and most probable time duration relating to the activity and then take into consideration the average completion time.
- Resources can be allocated and planned quite easily for example staff planning, budget estimation and so on.
- Directly identifies the interrelationship between the different activities and the task.
- It can be stated that it is a good communication tool relating to planning and good communication (Weiss, Newell and Swan 2017).
Project Environment and Its Impact on Complex Project Management
The techniques, which can be used by the project manager in order to execute the processing of a complex project, are stated below:
- Understanding the complex scenario: If there is an organizational complexity due to the factor of the number of secondary committees, the project manager must deal with it. This would directly reduce the number of background documents and presentation, which has to be prepared by the member of the team. In some cases, the number of approval that is needed in the execution phase can be reduced also.
- Embracing whatever complexity exists: Sometimes within the framework of the project management which is complex unpredictability can lead to opening of new opportunity. The project manager should be able to take the opportunity at the right time that would be beneficial for the organization.
- Identification of the expert: The project manager responsible for the overall working of a project as well as take into consideration the risk factors. When there is any sort of risk, which is exposed into the project it is the duty of the project manager to get the right expert who could deal with the problem and resolve the problem.
- Reduction of the complexity: In the cases of the project being declared as complex, it should be the role of the project manager to reduce the complexity of the project. There can be different measures, which can be implemented which could reduce the complexity related to the project (Ahern, Leavy and Byrne 2014).
Case study 1: ICT Household statistics
The main aspect of the CS case study is to provide technical assistance, which can enhance the capacity of the national statistical system, which can produce ICT statistics. This also enhances the awareness between the policy makers regarding the importance of the ICT statistics in the concept of monitoring and evaluation. This can project can be stated as a complex project which includes many stakeholders (Fleming and Koppelman 2016).
Argument
Different beneficiary countries took advantage of the concept. This concept was introduced to collect data related to the ICT Household statistics. The concept helped in the increase of the availability of the statistics and increase in the reply to the ITU questionnaires’.
Deployment of video conference
The project aims to invite different representatives of the CIS region to take active part to directly implement the process of video conference. This project would be incorporating high level of decision making in different countries. This coordinate the policies related to productivity, development and governance.
The project was a huge success with successful implementation of the concept of video conference in the following countries.
- Republic of Armenia
- Republic of Moldova
- Russian federation
- Kyrgyz Republic (Ahern, Leavy and Byrne 2014)
Case study 3: Natural disaster early warning system
In this project, the main emphasis was to prevent the natural disaster by means of implementing an early warning system. This would be directly incorporating information dissemination and public safety.
In this project, there can be three stages of implementation, which are:
- Identification of the stakeholders including the local level scenario
- Identification of the location of the project
- Identification of the suitable premises where the project can be implemented and started (Schwalbe 2015).
Conclusion
The report can be concluded on a note that a complex project has many factors, which are involved into it. Taking into consideration, a complex project the project manager has some vital tasks. Few of the factors which are involved in the concept is the pressure form the stakeholders, the budget constant and the time framework of the project. It can be stated that a project cannot be easily be defined as a complex project, the main factors which involve in a project being complex Is that it expands to a bigger area which comprise of difficult in the factor of budgeting and timing.
References
Ahern, T., Leavy, B. and Byrne, P.J., 2014. Complex project management as complex problem solving: A distributed knowledge management perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1371-1381.
Ahern, T., Leavy, B. and Byrne, P.J., 2014. Complex project management as complex problem solving: A distributed knowledge management perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1371-1381.
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.
Ramazani, J. and Jergeas, G., 2015. Project managers and the journey from good to great: The benefits of investment in project management training and education. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), pp.41-52.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Serra, C.E.M. and Kunc, M., 2015. Benefits realisation management and its influence on project success and on the execution of business strategies. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), pp.53-66.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
Weiss, J., Newell, S. and Swan, J., 2017, January. Introduction to IT and project management minitrack. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
De Leoz, G. and Petter, S., 2014. Examining the moderating effects of knowledge management enablers on IT project team performance. In 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2014. Association for Information Systems.
Lientz, B. and Rea, K., 2016. Breakthrough technology project management. Rout
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