Using System Dynamics Modelling to Understand and Address the Systemic Issues on Complex Engineering Projects

As our world becomes ever more complex, engineering solutions to meet our needs become more difficult to realise. These solutions are born through projects that, because of this complexity, have been increasingly difficult to deliver on time and to budget. There is not a week goes by without reports of yet another project disaster, or another embarrassment for government! What is going wrong? Our ability to design and construct complex engineering solutions is improving, mainly through the formal application of systems engineering, but there is another entity in play that is not benefiting from the same degree of attention — the delivery mechanism or, as it is more commonly termed the “project”. This project can be as complex as the engineering solution, with behaviour that is extremely dynamic in nature. The application of system dynamics modelling is currently the only way by which this behaviour can be understood and ultimately controlled. System dynamics may therefore be the missing ingredient for successful projects.