Impact of Complexity Theory on Project Management
 

Professor Lynn Crawford, Bond University, Australia
Dr Svetlana Cicmil, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, UK (Project Leader)
Dr Terry Cooke-Davies, Human Systems International Ltd, UK
Dr Kurt Richardson, Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence, USA
Completion Date: 2008

Project summary

During the past decade, there has been an increasing tendency to draw attention to the particular challenges posed by complex projects. At the same time, complexity in and of projects has emerged as a theme for discussion and debate in response to growing concern about the dominance of various versions of control theory, operations research, systems theory, and instrumentalism in studies of projects, project management, and project settings in general. Research and critique have questioned the relevance of the traditional project management research to the challenges experienced in contemporary project environments at three levels: (1) discrepancy between “project management best practice” recommendations and what is really being enacted in practice; (2) observations of paradoxical, unintended consequences in practice that emerge from following the project management prescriptions in “the book”; and (3) the need for alternative theoretical conceptualizations and thinking about projects and project complexity in practice.
 

This research, undertaken with support from the Project Management Institute, aimed to contribute to the theoretical basis of the field of project management, by examining the landscape of “complexity theory” and illuminating those developments within it that have high relevance to project management, notably the concept of “complex responsive processes of relating in organisations” (CRPR).
 

In practical terms, the research aimed to propose and encourage a critical but constructive way of explaining, debating, and deliberating on project management and project performance issues leading to a wider awareness, knowledge, and development of skills and competencies that match the actuality and complexity of projects as experienced by practitioners in contemporary organisations. CRPR was used as a theoretical lens for understanding the lived experience of project teams, including executive sponsors, project managers, and project team members through examination of interviews with more than 70 participants in 27 projects conducted on three continents.
 

Selected Publications
Cicmil, S. J. K., Cooke-Davies, T. J., Crawford, L. H., & Richardson, K. A. (2009). Exploring the Complexity of Projects: Implications of Complexity Theory for Project Management Practice. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Cicmil, S. J. K., Cooke-Davies, T. J., Crawford, L. H., & Richardson, K. A. (2009). Complexity and the paradox of project control. In IRNOP IX Conference ( Berlin: Berlin Institute of Technology, Chair for Technology and Innovation Management.
Cooke-Davies, T. J., Cicmil, S. J. K., Crawford, L. H., & Richardson, K. (2007). We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto : mapping the strange landscape of complexity theory, and its relationship to project management. Project Management Journal, 38, 50-61.