The Theories Surrounding the Concept of Complex Project Management

Running head: THE CONCEMPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1
THE THEORIES SURROUNDING THE CONCEPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
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Running head: CONCEPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT. 2
THE THEORIES SURROUNDING THE CONCEPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT
MANAGEMENT.
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................2
Understanding project complexity.................................................................................................................3
Separating simple and complicated complex projects...................................................................................4
The causes of complex projects.....................................................................................................................5
The size of the project....................................................................................................................................5
The available time for a project under consideration.....................................................................................6
The environments/ issues of complex project management and the implications.........................................8
A case study of PB deep water project..........................................................................................................8
The various tools and techniques to help a manager complete complex project.........................................11
Gantt chart....................................................................................................................................................12
PERT chart...................................................................................................................................................13
The critical path technique...........................................................................................................................14
The degree and nature of the projects cases in context to the theories and ideas .......................................15
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................17
References....................................................................................................................................................19

CONCEPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT. 3
1)Introduction
In the last few decades, there has been a continuous and persistent increase in the number of
project management activities being undertaken due to the growing popularity and its long-term success
rate in accomplishing projects successfully. The project activities or rather project management has been
adapted in many different industries and professions which require effective planning when undertaking
ventures. Nonetheless, research has indicated that among the many industries that have adopted project
management, the engineering industry still takes the lead, due to the intricacy of its activities. In the
engineering sector, projects like constructions software development/ information technology projects are
the are the dominate project related activities. It is however important to note that different projects
require different level of effort for its successful completion. Some may require less resources, efforts and
skills while others may need extra-ordinary commitment, resources, skills and time for it to be
successfully executed or rather completed. This brings an insight in the level of complexity of project.
Project management requires careful application of skills and practices for effective integration of the
several sub-projects. Additionally, project management requires interpersonal communication skills by
the project manager. Additionally, there is need for additional skills like conflict resolution and
communication techniques. All these variables Due to the difference in the degree of difficulty among
projects, attentions have been directed towards simplifying the project execution. This is evidenced by the
argument put forth by Cooke-Davies (2011), managing projects in a complex world. It is noted that the
development of modern project management techniques are specifically geared towards the reduction or
simplification of project complexities especially for projects involving the integration of many sub-projects,
which in most cases been referred to as complex projects (p.3).
complexity of different projects may vary from one project manager to another basing on their
perception and skills in handling projects. It should therefore be noted that a project being hard does not
necessarily mean it is complex. According to Jeff Worley, former VP of the Boeing company there are
mostly four kinds of complexities in project management; technical complexity, cost complexity,

CONCEPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT. 4
schedule complexity and political complexity. Terry-cook chapter one, it was highlighted that a project
becomes complex when the manager’s effects are difficult to predict or unexpected. A project usually
becomes complex when it results into a combination of three effects; lots of interconnections, highly to be
lots of changes with high levels of uncertainty and time constraint. The key for a project manager to
manage complexity is by analyzing at the early stages, understands the origin of the complexity and
ensuring proper strategy is put in place. The concept of complexity has various theories, causes and
situations/ environment and there are many schools of thought to this with the most common being by
Terry Cooke-Davies’ (Aspects of complexity). The strain, exertion and difficulty of different projects
may be referred to as the level of project complexity in a law man’s understanding. However, different
project specialist has defined project complexity in different way.
2)Understanding project complexity
From the insight in the introductory section, we understand that complexity or the
complicatedness of different projects vary. Complexity has been defined in many different ways by
different scholars. Some researchers like terry-cook, in his book of “aspects of complexity: managing
projects on complex world chapter one, he defined project complexity as the type of project that involves
the integration of many sub-parts and hard to analyze, evaluate, understand and deal with. In other words,
the degree of difficulty and exertion of a project is referred to as project complexity. Different field have
different projects and the completes also varies. One of the fields that have been recognized as
encompassing complex projects include the construction industry due to the increasing innovation and
integration of many subprojects (Cooke-Davies, T. (2011, p.2)
Lalonde, Bourgault & Findeli (2010, p.21) highlighted that all projects are complex, however, the
level of complexity matters. they based complexity on the size of the project, the degree of technicality/
difficulty, and the level of uncertainty of a project. Projects that tend to be more technical and highly
uncertain are regarded as complex in reference to this study. It was anchored by Beringer, Jonas, & Georg

CONCEPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT. 5
(2012, p.32) who recommended that for a project to be tagged complex, it must ascertain certain attributes
which include technical complexity, schedule complexity, cost complexity and political complexity. To
him, to him, complexity or complicatedness solely depend on the four variables. Some complex projects
may not have all the four. This implies that the degree of complexity increases with increase in the
variables as well as the strength of the variables. A study by Rolstadås, et al. also regarded a project to be
complex when it is highly uncertain to predict the possible outcomes, highly interdependent/
interconnected, and has a high degree of time constraint.
On the other hand, theories may primarily and typically be understood as the norms or principles
associated to a particular topic or project. In reference to this, it is important to note that the theories
surrounding the concept of complex project managements are simply norms and believes that people
(project managers) uphold in relation to complex projects. The complexity of different projects may be
perceived in different ways according to different project managers. In other words,
3)Separating simple and complicated complex projects
From the definitions of complex projects according to Worley, it is imperative to understand
that simple projects are those that do not have the four variables as listed in the introductory section
i.e. time technicality, schedule, political and cost technicality (Saviano, & Di, 2011, p.199). This is
simply the reverse of his definition. From a general perspective, simple projects refer to the ones that
do not have many interdependent subprojects, manageable in relationships to the cost and time
4)The causes of complex projects
In regard to the introduction, it was noted that the issue of complexity is caused by various
questions and based on different perceptions. this variation is due to a feedback loop in which case the
effect is itself a root cause. The most frequent causes of project complexity are known to be the changes
in variables like project size, location, the team experience or expertise, interfaces within the project,

CONCEPT OF COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT. 6
logistics, political influences, permits and approvals there isn’t much difference between complexity and
the achievement aspects of the scheme. The biggest issues that influence the effect on the success of the
project are production time and cost. When this complexity is not fully understood by the managers,
failure of projects becomes the order of the day.
(Pauget, & Wald (2013, p.200) showed that complex projects possess various characteristics
which makes it hard to predict the project outcomes. The relationship that exist between project interfaces
and attributes induces complex projects and their subsequent significant influence on the functionality and
predictability. With the preceding note, we can draw an insight that, although complexities vary from
project managers to other project managers, there are basic general perceptions and issues that may make
a project to be regarded as complex. These complexities arise from the number of variables and project
size under execution. The causes of complex projects can be identified as follows;
a) The size of the project
When a project involves a large number of stakeholders, it is typically true that the management
of various stakeholders involved in the project will be complex. It anchors on the principle/ norm that the
higher the number of stakeholders, the complex a project is regarded. Additionally, large projects require
extraordinary skills when it comes to the allocation of resources to the many various subprojects in the
project. A failure or misconception during resource allocation consequently leads to large costs and
expenses undertaken which is results into losses and project failures in general. Risk management and
assessment is yet another issue that is associated with large projects. The larger a project is, the higher the
risks involved which requires a more integrative skills of assessing the various project fields and
structures. This subsequently increases the level of complexity of a given project.
With the prior knowledge in this section, it becomes inevitable that bigger projects are more
complex as compared to the small ones. Increasing the number of stakeholder and resources leads to
complexity as it hampers project effectivity and outcomes. Customer satisfaction has a lot to do with the