Systems Thinking for Program and Portfolio Management Analysis

This report delves into the application of systems thinking within program and portfolio management, emphasizing its importance for project managers in today's competitive business environment. It highlights the limitations of traditional project management approaches and advocates for a systems-based perspective, drawing on systems engineering methodologies. The report covers key learning outcomes, including the relevance of systems thinking, the identification of useful tools such as causal loop diagrams and stock and flow diagrams, and the assessment of systems engineering's role. It further explores how systems engineering concepts and PPPM application systems can aid in organizing projects, monitoring performance, and managing changes. The report uses real-world examples like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Queensland Health payroll system debacle to illustrate the practical implications of systems thinking and the benefits of utilizing PPPM application systems. It concludes by emphasizing the increasing importance of these tools for achieving project objectives in a resource-constrained environment, fostering collaboration, and driving innovation.

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Program And Portfolio Management Information Systems
Name
Date

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Introduction and summary of outcomes
Project managers are becoming increasingly under pressure to deliver more with much less;
they are required to better handle the expectations of stakeholders, ensure customer requirements
are met, foster innovation, all with decreased resources that require them to deliver projects in much
shorter durations. These are consequences of an increasingly competitive business environment,
where product life cycles are reduced to a matter of months, rather than the old business
environment where a manufacturing company, for example, would expect to have a production life
cycle lasting a few years to a decade. The increasing demands o project managers also requires
them to work in collaboration and cooperation with other stakeholders, a situation that has led to
highly qualified project managers with the right skills increasingly failing to deliver successful
projects. But the problem is not a lack of tools and techniques, it is a matter of perception; managers
and organizations still view projects in snapshots as different parts, rather than as a system made up
of parts that affect each other and affect and are affected by the external environment. Adopting a
systems thinking approach based on systems engineering methodologies will greatly aid project
managers to deliver more successful projects, given that project management methodologies such as
Six Sigma, Lean, BABOK, and PMBOK have their origins in systems and systems engineering.
This paper summarizes the main learning outcomes with evidence for week two and week three
course learning units
Itemised learning outcomes
a LO1
Summary: Explain the relevance of systems thinking to the project, program and portfolio
manager
Project management itself as a field has its roots I systems engineering, as shown by the
various project management methodologies such as lean, PMBOK, and Six Sigma; in undertaking
systems analysis, one requirement is the setting of credible and clear objectives and formulating
viable alternatives. Systems thinking then becomes relevant to program, project, and portfolio
managers because it is a goal seeking and places great emphasis on feedback control and
communications. Systems thinking entails breaking down a project into its basic elements and then
seeing them as parts that make up a whole; parts and elements that affect each others, and have
inputs, processes and tools, and outputs, that can also be inputs for other elements and other
systems; systems affect various different elements in the external environment and are also affected
by the external environment. For project managers, looking at projects through the lens of systems
thinking is akin to using the BIM (building information modeling) approach to construction, where
all elements in a building project are interlinked for their entire life cycle, from design, to

PROGRAM AND PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 3
engineering, materials, construction, and facilities management, such that a change in one aspect;
such as materials or supplier affects all other systems (Sankaran, Haslett & Sheffield, 2010).
It then becomes a useful tool for project managers and even organizations to view projects
as interlinked parts, so that the effects of a decision made on one element and how it will affect
other elements is well understood before the decision is implemented. For instance, in the BP deep
water project, a proposal was made to install a better system to plug oil wells in the event of a leak;
but because the organization had an overriding policy of cutting costs, this plug was not put in
place, because managers only sought to cut costs; a systems thinking would have made them
understand that while the plug would cost some more money, it could prevent a disaster that cost
several hundreds of millions of dollars more (Association for Project management, 2017). As such,
systems thinking becomes a useful tool to the project, program, and portfolio manager because it
enables a holistic view of the entire project as a system for better understanding how the sum of its
different parts affect each other; this not only aid s in better decision making, but will ensure
decisions are made on time before things get out of hand.
Evidence: The BP Deep-water Horizon oil spill disaster in the gulf of Mexico (Moore,
2010)
b LO2
Summary: Identify different systems thinking tools and techniques to aid project managers
solve project problems.
Systems thinking requires the use of various tools that project managers can use to better
manage projects and have a high level, holistic view of the entire project. One of the best tools to
use in systems thinking is the causal loop diagrams (CLD). Systems thinking is like a language for
representing interdependent and complex issues that project managers face in every project; CLD’s
are the sentences used to describe the complexities of issues in projects that identify the main
variables within the system and indicating the causal between these variables through links, which
are like verbs in a sentence. Linking several loops together a concise story concerning a specific
issue pr problem can be created. The CLD is made up of four main variables that include variables,
the links between the variables, the signs on the links (these show the interconnection between
variables), and the loop sign (this shows the behavior type that the system will produce). Presenting
project problems through the perspective of the CLD, the structural forces that result in puzzling
behavior can be better understood (Lannon, 2018).
Another tool that the project manager can use in systems thinking is the stock and flow
diagrams; these are the foundations of systems modeling. Stocks refer to entities that can be

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depleted or accumulate; it can be looked at as a bucket that is filled with water from a tap. An
example of stock is inventory in a manufacturing plant: on the other hand, flows refer to entities that
make the stocks decrease or increase, such as a drain of a water tank or bucket and so affects the
levels of stocks. Examples of flows are purchases by consumers (increases installed base) and
production (decrease inventory) are examples of flows. Stocks and flows will help project managers
know what causes a decrease in installed base and what causes an increase in inventory (Aronson &
Angelakis, 2018).
A third tool is the soft systems methodology that involves the use of rich pictures and root
definitions. Rich pictures are personal views of individuals pictorially represented, and can be used
in problem solving, instead of say, brainstorming, or to get the feelings of stakeholders. Rich
pictures enable honest expression of feelings and emotion in a manner that is unencumbered by
social constraints and are important systems thinking tools especially when managing stakeholders
because human factors are responsible for many project failures. Root definitions enable concise
statements for expected project achievements to be made (Mehregan, Hosseinzadeh & Kazemi,
2012). All these tools are highly useful to the project manager using systems thinking
Evidence : The Queensland Health payroll system debacle: lessons for IT projects
(Blackmore, 2013)
c LO3
Summary: Assess the relevance of systems engineering to project cases
Propoer identification of the requirements of a project are the prerequisites to better project
delivery; systems thinking is an essential tool for the proper identification of the requirements for a
project. Systems engineering and project management are functions that are highly complimentary
functions; there is great benefit to be gleaned from leveraging the strength of each when managing
projects in a team environment. In a silo view, the project manager manages the the life cycle of the
project, while the systems engineer manages the projects’ technical baseline for the product or
project being developed/ delivered. Both the systems engineer and the project manager share
management responsibility for the project requirements and will keep the project on track through
working closely together (Kapsali, 2011). As such, systems engineering and project management
are mutually inclusive approaches to managing projects. Taking this a step further, with a systems
thinking mindset, the project manager will not only manage the project life cycle, but manage the
interrelationships between project elements effectively. As such, systems engineering becomes
relevant in project management because it enables a holistic view of all elements within a project,
and how these elements affect each other. Projects are characterized by interrelated activities that

PROGRAM AND PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 5
affect each other; the project schedule is affected by available resources and project scope, which
are in turn affected by the budget and external factors. Understanding how these affect each other
results in better decision making as well as risk management strategies that then result in better
project outcomes.
Evidence: The BP Deep-water Horizon oil spill disaster in the gulf of Mexico (Moore,
2010)
d LO4
Summary: Describe how systems engineering concepts and methodologies can help a
project, program and portfolio managers organise a project.
Systems thinking and project management overlap: incidentally, project managers don't
appear to utilize basic frameworks thinking instruments despite the fact that these give
extraordinary advantages in surrounding and taking care of issues that emerge from different points
of view and connections. The motivation behind this paper is to present chosen frameworks
thinking ideas and instruments and portray their application to the administration of complex
undertakings (Sherrer, 2010). The advantages of the utilization of "hard" and "delicate" frameworks
thinking techniques at specific periods of the project execution ensures that all requirements are
captured, while the triple constraints are better managed. The triple constraints are an important
framework for project management; using systems engineering methodologies, the project manager
is better able to understand how they interrelate with each other and can therefore better manage the
entire project, by looking at them as interrelated components of a whole project life cycle (van
Gemert, 2013)
Evidence : The Queensland Health payroll system debacle: lessons for IT projects
(Blackmore, 2013)
e LO5
Summary: Identify how project, program and portfolio (PPPM) application systems can
assist project managers to monitor performance and manage changes within a project
One reason why projects fail is because decisions are made late or that the project manager
does not notice if the project is going off schedule and that one change in one aspect of the project
affects all other components. The PPPM application systems are software applications used in
project management, such as SAP, Microsoft, or IBM software systems. These applications are
effective tools to enable the project manager have a holistic view of a project, while also enabling
them to better monitor and control the project while it is being executed (Schmidt, 2013).

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Application systems are important decision making support tools; knowing how hiring new staff
affects the budget and looking at productivity trends, a project manger may make a different
decision in which they motivate staff to increase productivity, rather than hiring new staff. Projects
fail because monitoring is sometimes lax and important issues are missed; these PPPM applications
will help project managers monitor project progress against a baseline better, and make effective
decisions in a timely manner.
Evidence : The Queensland Health payroll system debacle: lessons for IT projects
(Blackmore, 2013)
f LO6
Summary: Discuss contemporary developments in the use of project, program and portfolio
(PPPM) application systems.
PPPM application systems are becoming indispensable tools for managing projects to ensure
the objectives are better met. Using an analogy, my understanding of a PPPM application is like an
office productivity suite; using a word processor ensures that professional documents are created,
and that their versions can be changed, with modifications easy to make and save, unlike typing pr
manual writing of reports. PPPM application systems are high productivity tools that are becoming
indispensable in projects, and project management teams and project organizations are using them
increasingly to foster greater collaboration and spur innovation (Dalcher, 2016)
Evidence : The Queensland Health payroll system debacle: lessons for IT projects
(Blackmore, 2013)
Discussion and Conclusion
Project managers are facing increasing challenges to deliver better projects, in shorter time
periods, and with greater innovation, while resources allocated to these projects are getting
increasingly less; demanding stakeholder expectations are not making things any better. While all
project mangers have the technical skills and qualifications in project management, the challenge is
the use of perspectives to have a holistic view of projects, because I believe most projects fail due to
having single snapshot views of different elements rather than viewing them as a whole. Using
systems thinking, project managers are able to better interlink the various elements within a project
and understand how they affect each other. Systems thinking views projects as being made of
different parts and elements that affect each other and also affect and are affected by external
factors. Using tools such as CLD’s, soft systems methodologies, and stock and flow diagrams,
helped by PPPM application systems, project mangers can use systems thinking principles to have a
holistic view or project and make better decisions at timely moments.

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Evidence: The BP Deep-water Horizon oil spill disaster in the gulf of Mexico (Moore,
2010)

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References
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Rigor of Your Thinking - The Systems Thinker. Retrieved from
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thinking/
Association for Project management. (2017, March 30). Can systems thinking deliver better project
outcomes? | APM. Retrieved from https://www.apm.org.uk/blog/can-systems-thinking-
deliver-better-project-outcomes/
Blackmore, N. (2013, November 4). The Queensland Health payroll system debacle: lessons for IT
projects | Lexology. Retrieved from https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?
g=5a0a3b2c-52af-45b4-a385-baab4a89949c
Dalcher, D. (2016). Advances in Project Management : Further Advances in Project Management :
Guided Exploration in Unfamiliar Landscapes. Taylor and Francis.
Kapsali, M. (2011). Systems thinking in innovation project management: A match that works.
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Lannon, C. (2018, January 14). Causal Loop Construction: The Basics - The Systems Thinker.
Retrieved from https://thesystemsthinker.com/causal-loop-construction-the-basics/
Mehregan, M. R., Hosseinzadeh, M., & Kazemi, A. (2012). An application of Soft System
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Moore, S. W. (2011, January 9). BP's Project Management of the Deepwater Disaster. Retrieved
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Sankaran, S., Haslett, T., & Sheffield, J. (2010, October 6). Systems Thinking Approach to Address
Issues in Project Management. Retrieved from
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Schmidt, T. (2013). Strategic project management made simple: Practical tools for leaders and
teams. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Sherrer, A. (2010, July 18). A Project Manager's Guide to Systems Thinking: Part I. Retrieved from
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/project-managers-guide-to-systems-thinking-part-1.php
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https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/systems-engineering-project-5857

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