scholarly journals Complexity and Project Management: A General Overview

Complexity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
José R. San Cristóbal ◽  
Luis Carral ◽  
Emma Diaz ◽  
José A. Fraguela ◽  
Gregorio Iglesias
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Goal Attainment ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Project Organization ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Planning And Control ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
Project Complexity ◽  
Clear Identification

As projects have become more and more complex, there has been an increasing concern about the concept of project complexity. An understanding of project complexity and how it might be managed is of significant importance for project managers because of the differences associated with decision-making and goal attainment that are related to complexity. Complexity influences project planning and control; it can hinder the clear identification of goals and objectives, it can affect the selection of an appropriate project organization form, or it can even affect project outcomes. Identifying the different concepts associated to project complexity, its main factors and characteristics, the different types of project complexity, and the main project complexity models, can be of great support in assisting the global project management community. In this paper, we give a general overview of how complexity has been investigated by the project management community and propose several ideas to address this topic in the future.

Study on Behavioral Risks Based on Complexity Theory

2013 ◽  
Vol 357-360 ◽  
pp. 2353-2357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Dong He ◽  
Yuan Li Wang ◽  
Yuan Yuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Complexity Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Project Organization ◽  
Nonlinear Characteristics ◽  
Project Complexity ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Complex Project ◽  
Theory Of Complexity

We attempt to study the participants behavioral risks of the complex project based on the theory of complexity analysis in this paper. First of all, through the review of literature we put forward the research contents of the complexity theory. Then, discuss the complexity characteristics of the project management; focus on the definition of the project complexity, the nonlinear characteristics of the project organization, the emergence and uncertainty characteristics of the complex project, etc. Finally, we point out that both from the perspective of theoretical research and project practice, the complexity analysis of project management has a positive significance.

Complexity Framework for the Project Management Curriculum

2021 ◽  
pp. 334-357
Author(s):  
Simon Cleveland ◽  
Cristelia Hinojosa
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Project Complexity ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Elective Courses ◽  
Elective Course ◽  
Core Project ◽  
Management Curriculum

Universities' core project management courses address the key principles and best practices of project management methodologies, while elective courses are utilized to introduce alternative project frameworks. The concept of project complexity can be taught to strengthen competency in project managers and enhance the success of the projects they manage. Previous instruction methods were evaluated to determine the key concepts that pertain to project complexity. This article proposes a preliminary framework for the development of an elective course on project complexity.

Agile Approaches for Successfully Managing and Executing Projects in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Alexius A. Emejom ◽  
Carl Burgess ◽  
Donna Pepper ◽  
Joan Adkins
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Space Station ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
Agile Project Management ◽  
Project Management Institute ◽  
Agile Practices

The fourth industrial revolution utilizes artificial intelligence by automating large quantities of numbers to increase the chances of project success. The Project Management Institute lists examples of project outcomes, including but not limited to the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, the Panama Canal, and the placement of the International Space Station into Earth's orbit. This chapter highlights how the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) impacted the evolution of agile project management practices. It discusses how these could be applied in conjunction with traditional waterfall project management or as a standalone approach. Topics discussed include a definition and elements of project management, waterfall vs. agile project management, transitioning to agile methods, developments in agile project management, agile practices, and leading agile projects and project managers.

Agile Approaches for Successfully Managing and Executing Projects in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 1529-1547
Author(s):  
Alexius A. Emejom ◽  
Carl Burgess ◽  
Donna Pepper ◽  
Joan Adkins
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Space Station ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
Agile Project Management ◽  
Project Management Institute ◽  
Agile Practices

The fourth industrial revolution utilizes artificial intelligence by automating large quantities of numbers to increase the chances of project success. The Project Management Institute lists examples of project outcomes, including but not limited to the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, the Panama Canal, and the placement of the International Space Station into Earth's orbit. This chapter highlights how the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) impacted the evolution of agile project management practices. It discusses how these could be applied in conjunction with traditional waterfall project management or as a standalone approach. Topics discussed include a definition and elements of project management, waterfall vs. agile project management, transitioning to agile methods, developments in agile project management, agile practices, and leading agile projects and project managers.

THE PROJECT BOUNDARY AND OCCUPATIONAL STRESS

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Farnes
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Occupational Stress ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Project Manager ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
Project Environment ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Manager Performance

Despite advances in project management practices and profession, projects continue to have an unacceptably high failure rate, which may be influenced by project manager being highly stressed and their decision-making capabilities becoming narrowed. The project manager's role necessitates that they occupy the boundary between sponsoring organisation, clients, and other actors involved in the project environment, where they are often subjected to time pressures, project uncertainties, conflicting demands, complex and often dynamic social structure involved in the project environment. In this social constructionist study thirty six senior executives participants were interviewed. It was observed that when discussing the person-environment fit and competencies of a project manager, occupational stress and stress management were overlooked by executive project sponsors as a possible contributing factor for poor project manager performance and poor project outcomes. Despite the growing body of research evidence that has identified occupational stress across many different professions as having an adverse impact on an individual's performance and health, there has been little recognition within project management literature of the impacts of stress or coping strategies for managing stressors within the project environment. This strongly suggests that additional research on stress focused on the project environment is warranted, and that both project sponsors and project managers need to be made aware of the antecedents to stress and consequences of stress both in the personal and business sense.

Attock Refinery Upgradation Project

2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 77-101
Author(s):  
Ahmed Nawaz Tariq ◽  
Arif Iqbal Rana
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Northern Pakistan ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Project Monitoring ◽  
And Control

This case is about a major expansion and upgradation project undertaken at a refinery in Northern Pakistan in the 1990s. The project was the biggest expansion project since the company's inception in the 1920s. The project was carried out by a Japanese contractor, and was marked by changes in CEO's and Project Managers. Despite the vicissitudes in relationships between the construction team and company management, the project was completed in time and within budget. The case looks at project management from the client's perspective. It can be used in a module on Project Termination, or Project Monitoring and Control in a course on Project Management). The case highlights the importance of project planning, and monitoring; the management of inter-personal relationships; and 'post-mortem' analysis and learning from projects.

The Impact of the Project Manager on Project Management Planning Processes

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shlomo Globerson ◽  
Ofer Zwikael
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Project Manager ◽  
Risk Management Process ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Tools And Techniques ◽  
The Impact

If a project is to be successfully completed, both planning and execution must be properly implemented. Poor planning will not allow appropriate execution and control processes or achievement of the project's targets. The objective of the study reported in this paper is to evaluate the impact of the project manager on the quality of project planning processes within the nine knowledge areas defined by A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and to determine ways of increasing the effectiveness of the manager's intervention. Participants in the study evaluated their use of the 21 processes that relate to planning, out of the 39 processes required for proper project management. The results of the study reveal risk management and communications as the processes with the lowest planning quality. Poor quality in these areas results when project managers lack the formal tools and techniques for dealing with communications and the functional managers are not equipped with the tools and techniques that will allow them to effectively contribute to the risk management process. Improving quality planning processes requires the development of new tools in areas such as communications, as well as organizational training programs designed for the functional managers.

scholarly journals USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN FUTURE PROJECT MANAGERS' TRAINING

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana V. Dubinina ◽  
Lesia D. Hrytsiak
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Education Management ◽  
Management Project ◽  
Management Students ◽  
Future Project

The article clarifies the concepts of project and project management, substantiates the use of information systems and technologies in training specialists in project management (project manager and program manager), discusses the characteristics and functions of project management information systems as well as describes the materials and methods of project implementation and the advantages of using IT for project creation. The author outlines the contents of project managers' training at the University of Education Management Educational-Scientific Institute of Management and Psychology and claims that future project managers must know the main characteristics and functionalities of and be trained to use the MS Project, Oracle Primavera, etc. The project management students also have to be able to determine the purpose of and tools for a calendar network model development, to formulate requirements for project management software in solving specific problems as well as to use software for project planning, monitoring and analysis.

Agility as a Matter of Degree: An Empirical Study of the Determinants of Agility in Projects

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-230
Author(s):  
Anine Andresen ◽  
Shanga Mohammad ◽  
Andreas Wald
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Team Size ◽  
Customer Involvement ◽  
Agile Project Management ◽  
Planning Approach ◽  
Rapid Changes

Agile project management (APM) is supposed to facilitate the response to rapid changes in complex and dynamic environments by applying an iterative planning approach, close customer involvement, and self-organizing teams. The literature has often considered the choice between APM and traditional project management (TPM) as binary and equated the use of APM methods with the desired outcome, i.e. project agility. In this paper, we challenge the assumption of binarity of APM and TPM and focus on project agility as an outcome. We argue that project agility is a matter of degree and is influenced by internal and external determinants. Building on Qumer and Henderson-Sellers’ (2008) four-dimensional analysis tool (4-DAT) framework, we develop a set of hypotheses of the determinants of project agility that are tested empirically using a cross-industry sample of project managers in Nordic countries. In line with the existing literature, we find customer involvement, organizational culture, and less upfront project planning to be positively related to the degree of agility in projects. However, we do not find significant effects of team size and complexity of the environment.

Managing Software Development Projects for Success: Aligning Plan- and Agility-Based Approaches to Project Complexity and Project Dynamism

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Butler ◽  
Leo R. Vijayasarathy ◽  
Nicholas Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Project Success ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Project Approach ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
Project Complexity ◽  
Management Approaches

In general, project complexity and project dynamism are recognized as potent characteristics that influence, usually in a negative way, the outcome of software development projects. However, with respect to the two dominant paradigms for managing software development projects (i.e., plan-based project approach and agility-based project approach), there is less agreement as to which one is better. Emerging research suggests that the preeminence of one approach over another is a matter of fit between the project management approach and the project context, including its complexity and dynamism. We contribute to this line of research by studying the moderating influence of the two project management approaches on the relationship between project complexity and project dynamism on project outcomes. Our analysis of data gathered from a survey of software development professionals shows that managing dynamism is critical for realizing project success, and an agility-based project approach is best suited for mitigating dynamism’s negative effects on project success.

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