Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide

Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide

The Project Management Institute published the electronic version of Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide. http://www.pmi.org/Knowledge-Center/Project-Complexity.aspx  The print version is available from PMI, $27.95 Member, $34.95 Nonmember .

The practice guide provides an approach for better understanding complexity on a project. Much of the guide provides a foundation in complexity and presents three categories of complexity: human behavior, system behavior and ambiguity. An assessment questionnaire is the center piece of the approach with  47 questions that can be answered yes/ no.

The strength of the approach is the ease of use. I believe any project team can study the Guide and use the assessment questionnaire to develop a better understanding and therefore a better project management plan. The guide is being currently being tested by PMI with four PMOs.

I believe this is a good foundational approach and as PMI beta tests and as researchers begin to build on this work, the professional will develop better tools for assessing and profiling projects.

Russ

Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide

Section 1          Introduction

Section 2          Organizational Considerations

Section 3          Encountering Complexity

Section 4          PMI Foundational Standards and Useful Practices

Section 5          The Assessment Questionnaire

Section 6          Complexity Scenarios and Possible Actions

Section 7          Developing an Action Plan