Preparing project managers to deal with complexity – Advanced project management education

Thomas, Janice; Mengel, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.01.001

Cited by 322 publications

(243 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Difficulty was the second most cited word by respondents. This word corroborates the idea that the concepts of difficulty and complexity still get mixed up in common sense (Thomas & Mengel, 2008;Whitty & Maylor, 2009;Tarride, 2013). For example, project management practitioners often confuse complex projects with megaprojects (Whitty & Maylor, 2009).…”

Section: Discussion On the Evoked Wordssupporting

confidence: 69%

“…This theory is concerned with the behavior of certain complex systems over time, and has been widely applied in several types of research in different branches of knowledge (Cooke-Davies et al, 2007;Ponchirolli, 2007;Thomas & Mengel, 2008;Aritua et al, 2009;PMI, 2009;Serva et al, 2010).…”

Section: Complexity In Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A lot of attention has been given to the Project Management theme, however, the historical of performance of the projects remains unsatisfactory (Thomas & Mengel, 2008;MPA, 2013). Delays, explosions of budget and not expected performances are common.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Caracterização da complexidade em projetos de engenharia

2018

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Resumo: A complexidade dos projetos tem aumentado, impulsionando a demanda, no gerenciamento moderno de projetos, por novos conhecimentos, ferramentas, técnicas e modelos de trabalho. No entanto, a comunidade Palavras-chave: Projetos complexos; Teoria da Complexidade; Teoria da Representação Social; Evocação de palavras.Abstract: The complexity of the projects has increased, boosting the demand in modern project management for new knowledge, tools, techniques and work models. However, the scientific community still seeks a definition for the complex project construct and the factors that characterize it. Therefore, the objective of this qualitative and descriptive study was to identify the factors that characterize the complexity in the vision of engineering project management professionals and from that, to propose a definition for a complex project. This characterization was based on the perception of 132 respondents, captured through the word evocation technique; treated and analyzed by the Vèrges technique with the support of Social Representation Theory and Complexity Theory. As a result, the central nucleus of the social representation that characterizes a complex project in the view of the professionals of the engineering area was constituted in descending order by: stakeholders, difficulty, risks, technology, large, scope, multidisciplinary and long. It is observed that complex projects are seen as a superlative system, in terms of quantity and quality of constituents, and stakeholders management gains protagonism.

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Section: Discussion On the Evoked Wordssupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Complexity In Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Caracterização da complexidade em projetos de engenharia

2018

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“…The fact that project management (PM) education struggles in educating project managers and team members to cope with complex problems (Thomas and Mengel, 2008) is ironic as the purpose of PM is about 'making something complex happen' (Martin, 2000b, Dh, 1987.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, there is a significant need for a PM education that educates people not only to 'know what' but also to 'know how' to apply PM knowledge in complex scenarios in their projects (Thomas and Mengel, 2008). The latter signifies the importance of having experience rather than just having knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and evaluation of the project and program crashing games

Rumeser¹,

Emsley

2018

JARHE

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Purpose -This research aims to help project management game designers and educators in simulating complexity in project management games and in assessing the effect of simulated project complexity levels on students' learning experience. To achieve this aim, we attempt to design and evaluate two computer-based project crashing games with different complexity levels, namely Project Crashing Game (PCG) and Program Crashing Game (PgCG).Design/methodology/approach -A literature review is conducted to identify serious games design principles. These principles are then manifested in the design of PCG and PgCG. The latter is a more complex version of the first. Students' reaction after playing both games are then analyzed quantitatively.Findings -We discover that students' learning experience is affected by how complex the simulated project is. The more complex the project is (i.e. as in the PgCG), the more realistic the game is perceived. Nevertheless, we also discover that the less complex game (PCG) offers significant value to students, particularly to teach basic project management principles to those with minimum or no practical experience. This game is perceived as better in increasing students' learning confidence as its content is perceived as more relevant to their existing knowledge.Originality/value -We adopt a project complexity perspective when designing and evaluating the games.

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Managing Risk and Uncertainty

Lahti¹

2014

Managing Technology‐Based Projects

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Preparing project managers to deal with complexity – Advanced project management education

Cited by 322 publications

References 40 publications

Caracterização da complexidade em projetos de engenharia

Caracterização da complexidade em projetos de engenharia

Design and evaluation of the project and program crashing games

Managing Risk and Uncertainty

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