written assesment

PPMP 20014

Complex Project Management

Lecture 7 for Week 7

Prepared by:

Richard Egelstaff PMP, Ph.D (c), MBA (Adv), BA

Discipline Leader for Project Management,

School of Engineering & Technology

Higher Education Division

CQUniversity Rockhampton

Topics

• Where are we so far?

• Week’s Stuff

– Readings

– Study

– Reflections & Discussions

– Assignments

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Learning Outcomes

1. Explain the causes, environments, and properties of complex projects.

2. Identify different tools and techniques to aid a project manager manage complex projects.

3. Critically analyse whether different projects cases are complex projects.

4. Formulate, argue and defend a strategy that a project manager can apply to a complex project case study.

5. In a team analyse the root causes of failure with a number of sample complex project cases.

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PPMP20014

Complex Project Management

THE WEEK’S READINGS AND STUDY

Week 7 - Topic: Beyond Competence.

• Mandatory Readings:

– Aspects of Complexity: Managing Projects in a

Complex World (2011)

• Chapter 7 Beyond Competence: Developing Managers of

Complex Projects by Lynn Crawford and Ed Hoffman

• Optional Readings

– none

• 6th Discussion Forum

• 3rd Quiz

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Chapter 7 Beyond Competence: Developing Managers of

Complex Projects by Lynn Crawford and Ed Hoffman

• Introduction

• Professional Competence and Beyond

• Developing Reflective Practitioners

• Managing Experiential Learning in the Workplace

• Industry/University Alliances, Corporate Universities, and Project Academies

• Benchmarking Project Academies: Methodology and Results – Methodology

– Demographics

– Results

– Experiential Learning

• Roles and Responsibilities of Project Academies – Workforce development

– Advocacy for practitioners’ professional development needs

– Common vocabulary

– Alignment with corporate strategy

– Alignment with external stakeholders

– Promotion of continuous learning across the organization

– Promotion of institutional knowledge

• Conclusion

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Chapter 7 Beyond Competence: Developing Managers of

Complex Projects by Lynn Crawford and Ed Hoffman

• The objective of the chapter is to define a future for project management—as a profession and as an approach to effectively delivering corporate strategy—demands capability that goes beyond minimum standards for competence.

• Crawford and Hoffman discuss a number of corporations that are taking direct responsibility for developing sufficient people with the right set of skills, experience, and behaviors to cope with the management of complex projects.

• They then articulate the development of higher-order expertise, which is required to manage more complex projects, requires opportunities to gain relevant experience.

• They finally lament that few organisations are investing in mentoring and support of meta-competencies.

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6th Discussion Forum

• In Chapter 6 Dale Shermon, inTerry Cooke-Davies book, discusses "The Impact of Complexity on Project Cost and Schedule Estimates" and states at the end of the chapter:

– Parametrics as an approach to set early complex project budgets is equally applicable in non- defense domains, if realistic budgets are desirable and business cases are going to be successful.

– Parametrics can be deployed to helping to set realistic budgets for complex projects and safeguarding the project manager.

• Do you agree with Mr Shermon? Particularly in the light of Ms Lynelle Briggs paper regarding wicked problems "Tackling wicked problems: A public policy perspective" that was presented in Week 1; are there different definitions of complexity or wickedness being described by Mr Shermon and Ms Briggs? Or could the observations of Mr Shermon be applied in the cases that Ms Briggs discusses in the kinds of needs within the Australian Public Service?

• In other words, could parametrics be applied to the Australian Public Service projects and as a consequence reconcile some of the issues they experience with Cost and Schedule estimates?

• Could this be an example of a useful application for the 'big data' paradigm that is often discussed by the Federal Government?

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3rd Quiz

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Assessment 2: Written Assessment 50%

• Your task is to consider:- – the causes, environments, and properties of complex projects;

– different tools and techniques to aid a project manager manage complex projects;

– the degree and nature of the projects cases discussed in the unit in the context of the theories and ideas related to complex projects.

• Then you must write an essay describing how you consider the points above are related to:- – projects with lots of parts and interconnections;

– projects that contain a great deal of uncertainty;

– project that are heavily time-constrained.

• You should illustrate your points by identifying what are the causes, theories, tools and techniques, that might be relevant to complex projects. You should use examples taken from case studies and examples discussed during the unit.

• 5,000 words due in Week 12

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Summary

• Where are we so far?

• Week’s Stuff

– Readings

– Study

– Reflections & Discussions

– Assignments

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