3 Ways To Reduce Complexity
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
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Experienced project managers will agree that complex projects are a headache for lots of reasons. Complexity adds all kinds of challenges and cost. But if you can reduce that complexity then you can take some of the stress out of your project.
“If you can understand it, you can move on to reduction.”
Harvey Maylor
Here are 3 ways to reduce complexity, once you know what is making your projects complex.
1. Resolve It
Just fix it. Make it go away. Use a different technology that is tried and tested. Add more time to the schedule. Throw money at the problem. Whatever it takes.
Unfortunately, many project complexities can’t be resolved like this, but it is definitely worth a try in the first instance.
2. Reduce It
Make the complexity less severe, with less of an impact on your project. This really does rely on you fully understanding what’s behind the complexity so that you can unpick it and come up with some strategies to chip away at it.
Harvey Maylor gave a presentation at a PMI Global Congress where he shared the results of some work he had done in this area. He talked about running 43 workshops with 1100 managers and in those sessions they were asked what percentage of the identified complexities in their projects they would be able to resolve or reduce.
I was surprised that they reported that they could reduce 82% of project complexities. Even if they were wrong by a factor of 2 that’s still 40% of complex issues that could be managed down.
What’s left when you reduce complexity is residual complexity (like residual risk). That might need a different approach or strategy to address, but it’s likely to be less of a headache to put in place than having to deal with the complexity in its entirety.
Having said that, the third complexity reduction technique isn’t really a reduction technique at all…
3. Live With It
You’ve identified it. You can choose to manage it and run with it, working out a practical response to dealing with rather than passively doing nothing.
One strategy that Maylor talked about is actively choosing the right person to sponsor and lead the project when complexity is involved. Different types of complexity issues require different skills at the top.
For example, a project that is complex for socio-political reasons needs a charismatic leader who can work with stakeholder groups to share the vision and sell the benefits. A project that is structurally complex needs a sponsor with great technical skills, someone who can juggle multiple parts and bring them back together as a whole. A project that struggles with emergent complexity requires a strategic thinker, someone who can see the bigger picture and make connections.
Getting the right team in place and framing their involvement in the project in the right way can help mitigate the impact of complexities if you can’t manage them out in any other way.
Posted on: November 05, 2016 08:46 AM |
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Comments (11)
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Karthik T
Senior Engineering Manager| Nike
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Avinash Khare
PM II| MAP-IT Consultant Project Management
Ambernath (East), Maharashtra, India
Everton Lins
IT Project Manager| Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
It's a good post, but i think that a 4th step is missing, avoid complexity.
As planners we have the opportunity to reduce complexity before it starts and some times even avoid such issues.
Philippe Schuler
Senior Instructor/Lecturer in Project/Program/Account PMO Management| Independant Consultant
Les Choux, France
Project complexity can be either inherent to the project or due to the project context.
In the first case (for example a comprehensive outsourcing program for a multi-countries Customer), you will have to setup an appropriate project organization to live with the inherent complexity but you can reduce some aspects of this complexity by transferring known parts of the projects where the execution can be easier (for example, execute local services with local teams rather than with centrally based resources).
From my experience in running large projects/program, a practical approach is to deal with the complexity in mixing the 3 proposed approaches (plus the fourth one "avoid" stated by Everton) to achieve a balanced way of managing complex projects.
Trajano Leme Filho
Digital Transformation that truly supports biz processes | Sr Project Manager| Pernod Ricard Brasil
Sao Paulo, Sp, Brazil
Peter Senge, in his book The Fifth Discipline, wrote: Today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions". So, we need an end-to-end thinking regarding to simplicity. To keep it simple, all the time, we need to change the culture: some people love complexity, because it seems "beautifull" or "sophisticated". In the other hand, many people believe that simple things means "poor design" or "low level of innovation". So, I'm definely going for it: we need to reduce the complexity. But one of the areas we need to take care, is the culture of the companies.
Drew Craig
Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard
Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Thank you, Elizabeth. Interesting correlation with complexities and risk. Helping to expose these can be made easier by actively and pragmatically steering your project.
Thank you for a nicely summarized article for facing complexities. I don't know much about this concept but it might be kind of perception every stakeholder might have on the situations of project. In brief, we can categorize into two divisions, like "physical complexity" and "mental complexity" . Thank you again.
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
I think often think look much more complex at an early stage. When more is done in the project the complexity is reduce, or easier to simplify .
Complexity should be manage has a risk, and put a review date so to look at it again.
Thank you ,Elizabeth, for this post and providing us with some tips on navigating common situations in projects. Complexity science is an interesting emerging field and certainly brings to the forefront many of the issues PMs regularly face in projects. Learning to work in these situations is a skill I'm continuing to develop.
I think it's important that when we approach new situations and new projects, we assess whether something is complicated versus complex. Avoiding, reducing, resolving, and mitigating complications can be easier than doing so for complex situations and projects. Complications may require intensive efforts and resources, but, generally, there are rules and other normatives that lead to predictable, somewhat linear outcomes. On the other hand, complexities are unpredictable and require much sense-making to come up with effective ways to reduce, resolve, mitigate, and avoid them (as suggested by Everton). Many times I have been involved with projects that are complicated without complexity. And, conversely, I've had comparatively simple projects, but the environment and situations were increasingly complex. Sometimes, it is not until project closure and the project post-mortem where the contributing conflicting factors are fully understood.
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Elizabeth
Interesting reflection on complexity and the 3 ways to reduce it
Thanks for sharing
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