Svetlana Cicmil - Exploring the Complexity of Projects: Implications of Complexity Theory for Project Management Practice

I n this monograph we outline and discuss the process and findings of the inquiry into the implications of complexity theory for project management theory and practice, which was generously supported by the Project Management Institute (PMI). We wish to thank PMI for giving us this opportunity to engage in, and contribute to, the pertinent and lively discussion about complexity in and of projects, which seems to have emerged in response to the growing concern about the dominance of various versions of control theory, operations research, systems theory, and instrumentalism in the studies of projects, project management, and project settings in general. A growing body of extant critique, emerging propositions, and research trajectories has exposed deficiencies and controversies associated with the relevance of the traditional project management research to the challenges experienced in contemporary project environments and with its practical application 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. During the past decade, there has been an increasing tendency to draw attention to the particular challenges posed by complex projects (Williams, 1999; Richardson, Tait, Roos, & Lissack, 2005) or by complexity in projects (Baccarini, 1996; Cicmil, 2003a, 2003b, 2005; Cicmil & Marshall 2005; Sommer & Loch, 2004). The discussion, however, has been somewhat hindered because the issue of theoretical foundations in project management research has been a central point of debate among both practitioner and scholarly communities for quite some time.