Share experiences you have had, suggests effective strategies for dealing with ambiguity in Project Management.
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Bruce Wilkinson MBA, PMPExpert Project Manager / Trustworthy Executive Assistant / Business Coach| goBRUCE Business ServicesCuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
Great question. Of course the first step is to reduce as much ambiguity as is reasonable (taking into consideration cost/benefit), but after that, ambiguity will always remain--nothing is perfectly defined and the odds are not always known.
The military started using the VUCA acronym (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) to refer to the discipline of decision making within the context of ambiguity. One concept that frequently comes up is that ambiguity will result in occasional failures, but that failure itself is a valuable outcome to provide knowledge and learning.
I think that one of the key components of effective strategic management involves managing the project or enterprise in such a way that the possibility of failure is included as a risk, and will not be deadly to the overall objective. Agile, by it''s nature, addresses this to some extent, as a given iteration is a relatively small, bracketed component, and while it''s failure will likely need rework, it will not usually sink the project as a whole. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
What does you mean with ambiguity? Are you talking about project requirements? Saving Changes...
Bruce Wilkinson MBA, PMPExpert Project Manager / Trustworthy Executive Assistant / Business Coach| goBRUCE Business ServicesCuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
Sergio, I was wondering that too. Incidentally, here is a concise answer to a question about the difference between project ambiguity and project risk that I found helpful. Saving Changes...
Bruce Wilkinson MBA, PMPExpert Project Manager / Trustworthy Executive Assistant / Business Coach| goBRUCE Business ServicesCuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
I''ll try entering the link again (couldn''t make it work above), but it essentially defines project ambiguity as situations where odds of outcome are not known as opposed to risk where odds can be calculated. http://www.projectmanagement.com/discussio...ect-Management. Saving Changes...
Ambiguity in project management has to do with lack of clarity. This could be related to any aspect of the project such as requirements, project objectives, project constraints, etc.
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Thank you @Ifidon. So, I will try to answer. The first to take into account is define with does means ambiguity in a project. I am saying that because some people define ambiguity as @Bruce mentioned above and some other define ambiguity from your point of view. So, we have a situation with a hugh grade of ambiguity. And that is what usually happens in a lot of project at the very begining. That is because the business analyst role emerges. The first thing to understand is that a project is started to create a product/service/result which is needed to solve a business problem. The product/service/result definition is not in the scope of work of the project manager. The project manager will take the definition and will create (with the team) all needed to create the product/service/definition. Here is where things like product scope and project scope must be clearly understanding. Project scope is defined from product scope. So, if product scope is clearly understanding by the project manager is not room for any kind of ambiguity in a project. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
As Sergio points out, we don''t want ambiguity about ambiguity. Saving Changes...
Thank you all for your very insightful responses. However, I would like to know your opinion on the following:
1. Would you consider ambiguity and complexity as risk sources in a project?
2. How would you use complexity and ambiguity to your advantage during a project?
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Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
1. Absolutely
2. Complexity can be used to convince the clients to invest into additional processes: quality, risk, change. Ambiguity can be used to indicate requirements area that need to be further clarified. Saving Changes...
Michael AdamsSolutions Architect| LANLLos Alamos, Nm, United States
Hi Ifidon, great question. I haven''t been on an agile project, but what you describe sounds like it may be a perfect candidate for an agile approach, where you have a business manager, who has a good idea of the needed outcomes, but ambiguity exists in how to fulfill on that outcome, so you setup a series of mini projects to fulfill on something definite and usable in the short-term, but it leads towards a bigger picture in the long term.
All along the way, the business manager is assessing what is needed for the product/project to be viable, and in an effort to meet the triple constraint, you are modifying what people are producing, based on the decisions made by the business manager.
Ultimately, you get a usable product/project, that may not be exactly what you set out to complete, but it does fulfill on the business requirements that the customer had. Saving Changes...
