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PPMP20014LectureWeek9v01a.pdf

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PPMP 20014

Complex Project Management

Lecture 9 for Week 9

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

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.

PPMP20014

Complex Project Management

THE WEEK’S READINGS AND STUDY

Week 9 - Topic: Controlling Chaos? The Value and Challenges of

applying Complexity Theory to Project Management.

• Mandatory Readings:

– Aspects of Complexity: Managing Projects in a

Complex World (2011)

• Chapter 8 Controlling Chaos? The Value and the Challenges

of Applying Complexity Theory to Project Management by

Kaye Remington and Roxanne Zolin

• Optional Readings

– none

• 8th Discussion Forum

Chapter 9 Controlling Chaos? The Value and the Challenges of Applying

Complexity Theory to Project Management by Kaye Remington and Roxanne

Zolin • A Problematic Application of Theory?

• Part One: Complexity Theory and Projects

– Defining Complexity

– A Question for Project Management

– Complex Adaptive Systems

• Emergent Phenomena

• Feedback Loops

• Dependence on Initial Conditions, and the Butterfly Effect

• Phase Transition

• Classifying Complexity

• Uncertainty

• Technical Challenges

• Time and Project Complexity

• Leadership and Management Challenges

• Part Two: Conceptual Hurdles

– Defining Complexity

– Assessing Levels of Complexity

– Appropriating Concepts from Other Disciplines

– Challenges for Research

– Challenges for Practice

• Conclusion 6

Chapter 9 Controlling Chaos? The Value and the Challenges of

Applying Complexity Theory to Project Management by Kaye

Remington and Roxanne Zolin

• The objective of the chapter is to describe some concepts associated with complexity theory and explores how the idea of complex adaptive systems has been adopted, adapted, and applied by project management theorists and practitioners to explain particular project phenomena.

• Then to discusses conceptual and methodological questions associated with appropriating ideas from other, quite disparate disciplines, such as complexity theory, in order to explain project phenomena.

• Finally, to raise questions for research about how complexity theory and its various derivatives might be used to help project managers work more effectively in difficult projects exhibiting various forms of complexity.

8th Discussion Forum

• In Chapter 8 Human Behavior and Complexity of his book, Terry Cooke-Davies identifies that we often "see what we want to see" (p. 109).

• Are there examples of projects or situations that you have experienced this phenomenon?

• What techniques do you think might be able to overcome this "deliberate deception" and "network of lies and deceptions" that might exist in human society and project management in particular?

4th Quiz

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

Summary