Analysis of Project Complexity and Strategic Organisation

This report delves into the critical distinction between project complexity and complicated projects, highlighting their unique characteristics and implications for project management. It explores various definitions of project complexity, emphasizing the interconnectedness of project components, while contrasting it with the characteristics of complicated projects, such as poorly defined goals and unrealistic deadlines. The report advocates for project complexity as the most suitable criterion for successful project execution, emphasizing its role in optimizing planning, initiation, implementation, and execution. It further classifies project management activities based on their level of complexity, including plan creation, team formation, organizational integration, and risk management. Through this analysis, the report underscores the importance of understanding and managing project complexity to enhance competitiveness and deliver value to stakeholders, concluding with a comparative summary of the key differences between complex and complicated projects and reinforcing the significance of project complexity in achieving project objectives.

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STRATEGY IN PROJECT ORGANISATION
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Definition of Project Complexity vs definition of complicated Project....................................3
Features of Project Complexity..............................................................................................4
Characteristics of a Complicated Project...............................................................................4
Project Complexity as the Best Criteria.....................................................................................5
Project Management Activities Classified Based on the Level of Complexity.........................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Reference List............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The technological progress experienced in arena of project management has resulted
in the development of several techniques, tools and processes, which has led to project
complexity. In this sense, there is a need to understand what is meant by project complexity.
Indeed, an understanding of project complexity, as well as the manner in which it can be
managed, is highly critical for project managers due to the dissimilarities related to goal
attainment and decision making that seem to be connected to complexity (Lessard, Sakhrani,
and Miller, 2014). The growth in technology has made the project to become more and more
complex, which has led to a rise in concerns regarding the ideology of project complexity and
the applicability of traditional techniques and tools developed explicitly for the simple project
have become inappropriate for the complex project. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that there
is a difference between project complexity and complicated project. Project complexity has
several definitions. According to Ahern, Leavy, and Byrne (2014), project complexity is
something that consists of various parts that are interconnected to form a system (p. 1374).
On the other hand, complicated projects are projects that cannot be easily understood. The
objective of this report is to describe what project complexity versus complicated project is.
Lastly but not least, the paper will then recommend the best criteria between project
complexity and complicated project.
Description of Project Complexity vs definition of complicated Project
Project complexity is the state of a project having several interconnected parts and not
difficult to understand. Consequently, understanding the complexity of a project plays a
vigorous part in the management of a project, which results in the successful delivery of all
interlinked project parts (Bakhshi, Ireland, and Gorod, 2016, p.1199). On the other side,
complicated projects are projects, which are hard to understand. Indeed, complicated projects

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certain features in common such poorly defined goals, unrealistic timeline, lack proper
communication, have insufficient team skills, geographically displaced teams and lack risk
management, only to name a few.
Features of Project Complexity
Project complexity is determined by assessing aspects of the project using the following
criteria:
 Lifecycle size for the cost
 Lifecycle duration for schedule
 Technology readiness
 Visibility
 Risk and
 Project organisation complexity
Features of a Complicated Project
Poorly defined goals: A poorly defined project goals make the project complicated in
the sense that it makes it difficult for the project leader and the project players to the exact
expectations from the project. Indeed, once the project goals and objective are not clearly
stated, the project is doomed to fail (Qazi, Quigley, Dickson, and Kirytopoulos, 2016). Once
there is not conversant with the project expectations, the path followed by the project and the
timeline for the completion of the project, it results in a lot of chaos and confusion.
Unrealistic deadline: It contribute to the complicating of the project. With unrealistic
timelines, project managers and team members end up struggling with unsure shareholders
and clients expectations. Research has shown that an unrealistic project deadline leads to the
slip of project deadlines. Consequently, the result of fall in project deadlines is desperate

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attempts by the project team to strive and fit the requirements to the initially drawn limits,
which worsen matters making the project complicated.
Project Complexity as the Best Criteria
Project complexity is the most suitable criterion to follow because it acts as a vital
component in influencing the success of any project. Through the determination of project,
complexity helps to maximise the efficiency level in which the project can be planned,
initiated, implemented and then executed. Consequently, in the process, this makes the
project organization more competitive, which, in the end, increases value to the consumer
(Senescu, Aranda-Mena, and Haymaker, 2012). Research indicates that it is significant to
align the process of determining complexity with the project type, area of project speciality
and the environment that an organisation is involved.
Project Management Activities Classified Based on the Level of Complexity
Creating a project management plan: The size of the project does not fit for all
project. A low complexity project requires less number of pages of the project management
plan. On the other hand, a highly complex project calls for many pages of the project
management plan because of many integrated project components.
Team formation: Project with low complexity that requires quick delivery like
software modification only need a small committed team of experts with the same type of
skills. On the other hand, the highly complex project calls for teams with many people who
have a range of expertise as well as skills stretching from craft workers, engineers to
scientists.
Organisation integration: The number of business units can significantly differ from
one organisation to another centred on the intricacy of the project. In this essence, the project
with low complexity is performed with the control of only a few personnel from a single

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business division. A project with high complexity demands for resources from a wide range
of divisions, business units and departments within an organisation as well as external
resources (Remington, and Pollack, 2016). Consequently, this could significantly influence
the extent of communication planning, the control time and stakeholder management
challenges encountered by the project.
Roles and responsibilities: For a project with low complexity, it is easier to define its
roles and responsibilities, which only takes a short period. A highly complex project that has
specific roles and responsibilities that take a more extended period to determine. Importantly
clear definition and documentation of roles and responsibilities in the initial phase of the
project lifecycle increases the probability of success (Floricel, Michela, and Piperca, 2016).
In the case of a low complex project, a simple responsibility matrix (RAM) is applicable
while high complexity project calls for a comprehensive RAM, which cuts across all
organisation levels running from the top management to the work package manager.
Risk management: Risk management varies with the complexity level of a project.
The risk management can range from only risk identification, and awareness to the use of
quantitative and qualitative risk analysis approaches such as Monte Carlo to determine the
level of confidence in schedule and cost performance, and risk response plan.
Conclusion
In conclusion, project complexity is different from the complicated project in the
sense that complexity shows the interconnection between different projects activities.
Contrary, complicated project refers to aspects that make the project to become hard to attain
its objectives due to poor planning and lack of clear objectives among other aspects. . Project
complexity is the state of a project having many interrelated components that together form a
complete system. Complicated project is a project that is hard to understand because of a lack

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of organisation structure in the project because of unclear project goals and plan. Project
complexity is critical to the success of any project because it helps to outline the requirements
in the initial stage of the project plan.
Reference List
Ahern, T., Leavy, B. and Byrne, P.J., 2014. Complex project management as complex
problem solving: A distributed knowledge management perspective. International
Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1371-1381.
Bakhshi, J., Ireland, V. and Gorod, A., 2016. Clarifying the project complexity construct
Past, present and future. International Journal of Project Management, 34(7),
pp.1199-1213.
Floricel, S., Michela, J.L. and Piperca, S., 2016. Complexity, uncertainty-reduction strategies,
and project performance. International Journal of Project Management, 34(7),
pp.1360-1383.
Lessard, D., Sakhrani, V. and Miller, R., 2014. House of Project Complexity—understanding
complexity in large infrastructure projects. Engineering Project Organization
Journal, 4(4), pp.170-192.
Lu, Y., Luo, L., Wang, H., Le, Y. and Shi, Q., 2015. The measurement model of project
complexity for large-scale projects from task and organization
perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 33(3), pp.610-622.
Qazi, A., Quigley, J., Dickson, A. and Kirytopoulos, K., 2016. Project Complexity and Risk
Management (ProCRiM): Towards modelling project complexity driven risk paths in
construction projects. International Journal of Project Management, 34(7), pp.1183-
1198.

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Remington, K. and Pollack, J., 2016. Tools for complex projects. London: Routledge.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317009825
Senescu, R.R., Aranda-Mena, G. and Haymaker, J.R., 2012. Relationships between project
complexity and communication. Journal of Management in Engineering, 29(2),
pp.183-197.