Managing Complex Projects: Importance of Collaboration between System Engineer and Project Manager

This article discusses the attributes of complex projects and the significance of collaboration between system engineers and project managers in managing complex projects. It also highlights the role of risk management planning and control mechanisms in mitigating issues and problems during project development.

Running head: COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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Introduction
There are certain ways of managing the project. Project can be classified into various
categories. The project can be broadly identified into two categories- complex project and
complicated project. Managing of complex project and complicated project is different as in
complex project there is uncertainty involved in the outcome of project (Crawford & Hoffman,
2011). In order to manage the ambiguity and uncertainty in the outcome of the complex project
management the collaboration between the project manager and the system engineer is
important. The merging of the workings of the project manager and the system engineer will help
to arrange the proper decision making framework which will help to manage the wicked
problems along with the different challenges in course of the development of complex project
management (Crawford & Hoffman, 2011). Objective of the paper is to discuss about attributes
of complex project and significance of the collaboration of the workings of the system engineer
and project manager for development of complex project management.
Discussion
One of attributes of complex project is that outcome of project contains uncertainty.
Sudden changes in the process can be happened in case of the management of the complex
project. In order to mitigate the negative effect of the sudden changes in the project the
collaboration between the project manager and the system engineer is important. In certain times
the complex project and the complicated project are referred as same (Crawford & Hoffman,
2011). However, this concept is not true. In case of complicated project, the project may contain
different parts along with complex inter relationship. Outcome of the complicate dproject is

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predictable. In complex project management the outcome is not certain and for this reason many
of the challenges and the issues are needed to be taken care.
Role of system engineer and the project manager is important during the development of
the project. The system engineer is concerned with the proper implementation of the
functionalities of the project while the project manager is concerned with the following of the
steps mentioned in the project management life cycle (Crawford & Hoffman, 2011). The project
manager helps to deliver the project in time along with that ensuring that all the requirements are
fulfilled in the final delivery of the project. The collaboration between the project manager and
the system engineer is important as it will help to reduce the ambiguity in the project along with
the mitigation of the issues and problems while development of the project.
In the management of the complex projects certain things are needed to be maintained.
The proper risk management planning is needed to be done and proper control and response
mechanism is needed for resolving the sudden issues in the development of the project
(Crawford & Hoffman, 2011). The lack of the proper risk management planning can lead to the
failure of project. In this context, the example of oil spill at Deep Water Horizon can be
mentioned.
There are some wicked problems involved in the managing of complex project. The
specialty of these wicked problems is that there is no feasible solution for the prevention of these
wicked problems. These problems are the sources of the uncertainty involved in the complex
project management. The project management team can not remove the uncertainty for the
complex project management completely (Crawford & Hoffman, 2011). However, the mitigation
of the negative effect of these issues on the outcome of the project can be minimized through the

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collaboration of the system engineer and the project manager (Crawford & Hoffman, 2011).
Proper sharing of the knowledge between the system engineer and the project manager can be
helpful for the project to meet all the requirements of the clients and the project can gi through
all the stages of the project life cycle along with delivering the outcome within the deadline.
Conclusion
The discussion is regarding the managing of complex project and significance of the
merging of functionality between the system engineer and the project manager. In this context
different attributes of the complex project has discussed. The difference between complex
project and the complicated project has been discussed in order to identify the importance of the
collaboration of the system engineer and the project manager. The functionality of the system
engineer and the project manager have been discussed so that their contribution to the
development of the complex project can be understood in a proper way. It can be said in order to
deliver the right outcome regarding the complex project management the management of the risk
is important along with the collaboration between the system engineer and the project manager.

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References
Crawford, L., & Hoffman, E.(2011). Chapter 6: The Impact of Complexity on Project Cost and
Schedule Estimates. In: T. Cooke-Davies. ed. Aspects of Complexity: Managing Projects
in a Complex World. Atlanta, USA: Project Management Institute Book Service Center,
73-74.
Crawford, L., & Hoffman, E.(2011). Chapter 7: Beyond Competence: Developing Managers of
Complex Projects. In: T. Cooke-Davies. ed. Aspects of Complexity: Managing Projects
in a Complex World. Atlanta, USA: Project Management Institute Book Service Center,
87-98.
Crawford, L., & Hoffman, E.(2011). Chapter 3: Tools for Complex Projects. In: T. Cooke-
Davies. ed. Aspects of Complexity: Managing Projects in a Complex World. Atlanta,
USA: Project Management Institute Book Service Center, 29-30.
Crawford, L., & Hoffman, E.(2011). Chapter 2: Managing Projects With High Complexity. In:
T. Cooke-Davies. ed. Aspects of Complexity: Managing Projects in a Complex World.
Atlanta, USA: Project Management Institute Book Service Center, 15-17.

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Crawford, L., & Hoffman, E.(2011). Chapter 5:Fear of Flying. In: T. Cooke-Davies. ed. Aspects
of Complexity: Managing Projects in a Complex World. Atlanta, USA: Project
Management Institute Book Service Center, 57-58.