Complexity
Adapting governance for complex projects
This paper offers insights into methods for dealing with governance in complex projects. This is not a primer on complexity or strategies for dealing with it in general; rather it points readers towards interesting concepts and areas so they can develop their own ideas.
Read moreComplexity – What’s new?
Complexity is mentioned in professional discussions from astrophysics to zoology. There is a sense that previous generations led a simpler existence and did not have to deal with it. Understanding whether this is true or not can help to put into perspective present day efforts to handle complexity. A complete history of complexity and efforts to cope with it would be an enormous undertaking but useful insights can be gained from an interesting paper written almost sixty years ago. In language that would not seem out of place today, Charles E. Lindblom described the dilemma of addressing systems with no ordered cause-effect relationships using methods based on systems that do have ordered cause-effect relationships. The challenges he described still exist but there are now ways to address complexity directly rather than try to fight against it or pretend it does not exist.
Read moreComplexity resources
Links here provide resources that explain some of the principles of complexity and the Cynefin framework that sets complexity in context
Read moreComplexity and project risk
We assume that large and complex projects will be risky. Complexity, scale and risk are bound together in the way we think, feeding off one another. It may be, though, that complex projects are risky not just because of complexity but also because of the way we choose to approach them. The interaction between complexity and project management raises many interesting issues. This is just one of them that has wide ranging implications.
Read moreWhat does risk look like in a complex project?
Risk management has an interesting relationship with complexity. Established approaches to project risk management are based on a classical linear project execution model. The rise in truly complex projects represents both an opportunity and a need for fresh thinking.
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