Complex Project Management: Strategies and Approaches

This report discusses the strategies and approaches for managing complex projects, including the importance of experience in developing competence and the roles and responsibilities of project academies. It also highlights the initiatives taken by organizations like NASA and Shell to develop talent and manage project portfolios.

Running head: COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
In this report, I am going to discuss about the deals that are concerned with the complex project
management. Dewey said that not all the experiences we gain, leads to beneficial learning. This becomes
very much necessary for the learner to critically analyze the experience they gain and to drawn a
conclusion form their learning’s. Education is the key feature that helps to develop Meta competencies
among the learners that facilitates effective learning. This has been seen that some organization prefers to
form a corporate university, so that they can develop education for employees. This also creates
opportunity for the core learner and the one with the creative thinking. The degree offered by them is in
less number. There are organization such as NASA and Shell that develops the talent, so that they can
manage the portfolio for projects done by the organization. An initiative was taken by this organization in
order to bring six organizations together from North America, Europe and Asia pacific, so that they can
share their experiences and develop their academic knowledge. In addition to this , a joint development
process was being imitated, so that they can gather data for benchmarking their development(Cooke-
Davies, et al., 2011).
The methodology behind the benchmarking project academics was that data was collected with
the help of an instrument that was represented by six organizations and each organization included 46
questions. These questions scored from 0-5, and each question was asked to rate based on deployment
and approach. The rounds took place eight companies at a time with two experienced assessors worked
for each of the eight companies so that they can complete the survey, and can return the result based on
the information gathered. These results were used for verifying the organization(Walker, 2015). The
quantitative data included cost involved in the project , characteristics of the organization , providing
services by academy.
After the evaluation of the cost incurred in the organizations , the annual cost for each of the
academy varies largely . This arises from US$1 TO US$15 MILLION (Harrison & Lock, 2017). The
main place where the expenses went high was on modifying the class room so that it can return effective
way of learning , with better understanding for the learners. But among all the organizations , one has

2COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
clearly set their paths for career. The organization with highest performance keeps on scanning the
horizon so that they can requisite levels. This organization requires qualified people so that they can
withstand the competition with the other organizations. There are some organization that continuously
changes with the requirement of the market and modifies with the environment. In addition to this , for
enhancing the t knowledge they has created a forum that shares the knowledge. This organization
encourages two-way research placements(Kerzner, 2017).
In this part I am going to discuss about the importance of experience in developing the
competence. A leadership quality was developed within the organization, so that the practitioners can
learn and develop skills at high level. Programs are developed for improving technical capabilities and
leadership behaviors among the people (Eriksson, Larsson & Pesämaa, 2017). In a competitive nature, it
is always ensured that only highly qualified individuals are selected for the opportunity and can improve
their career.
Each and every member of the organization have some specific role and responsibility and
everyone needs to work accordingly. Irrespective of the objectives varying from organization to
organization there are some common responsibilities and roles that are needed to be followed by the
organization. These includes the role of the project academy is to provide development training for the
project workforce, developing and maintaining strategies for both informal and formal learning. Aligning
with the stakeholders and with the corporate strategy are the next most important roles that are needed to
be followed. For a better growth and continuous benefits one needs to promote the learning across all the
organizations, so that they can learn about the features and the trainings provided by them( Ahern, Leavy
& Byrne, 2014). The institutional knowledge needs to be flourished , that is everyone should know about
the activities taking place within the institutions.
Therefore, from the above lessons, I can conclude that there is a huge need of creating a future for
project management, from both the perspective that is as a profession and as an approach of delivering the

3COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
strategies effectively. In order to overcome the challenges, several corporations are taking responsibilities
directly in order to develop a team with sufficient people that have efficient knowledge and skills so that
they can cope up with managing the complex projects. Some organizations are in partner with academic
institutions so that they can provide education for the learners as this will develop the required Meta
competencies among the learners. There is also a need to develop and manage the portfolios for projects.

4COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Bibliography
Ahern, T., Leavy, B., & Byrne, P. J. (2014). Complex project management as complex problem solving:
A distributed knowledge management perspective. International Journal of Project
Management, 32(8), 1371-1381.
Cooke-Davies, T., Lynn Crawford, D. B. A., Patton, J. R., PMP, C. S., & Williams, T. M. (2011).
ASPECTS OF COMPLEXITY: MANAGING PROJECTS IN A.
Eriksson, P. E., Larsson, J., & Pesämaa, O. (2017). Managing complex projects in the infrastructure
sector—A structural equation model for flexibility-focused project management. International
Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1512-1523.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling,
and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.