Executive's Guide to Project Management: Organizational Processes and Practices for Supporting Complex Projects

Project Complexity Assessment

In her award-winning book Managing Complex Projects: A New Model (Vienna, VA: Management Concepts, 2009) Kathleen Hass introduces a definition of a complex project. I have adapted her spider chart to relate complex projects to the senior management team (SMT) as initially shown in Figure 1.1 and repeated in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1 A Complex Project

Project Complexity Model 2.0, Kathleen B. Hass © 2010, Kathleen B. Hass & Associates, Inc.

The project profiled in Figure 6.1 is challenging from the project perspective as well as the enterprise perspective. From the project perspective, the problem and solution are moderate to highly complex, and that, coupled with the level of IT complexity, will be particularly challenging to the CPT. From the perspective of the enterprise, three of the four factors are moderate to highly complex.

So armed with this complexity assessment what can the complex project manager (CPM) do and what can the SMT do?

CPM Strategy

Beginning with team building, the CPM needs to elicit help from senior-level IT consultants. This project includes a high level of IT complexity. Perhaps it is the use of a new technology unfamiliar to the organization or that the solution requires a challenging design and application. In either case their specialist knowledge will help reduce some of the risk associated with discovering and integrating ...