Project complexity management – A design-based approach to managing information technology projects

Abstract

Project Management (PM) in addition to Software Engineering (SE), Information Technology (IT) and User Experience Design (UXD), are crucial fields in today’s age, acknowledged and well-known, with well-defined tools, methods, benchmarks, qualifications, and certified bodies. Whilst present day information technology engineering projects, establishments, practices, know-how and businesses are becoming further complex, complex projects still face poor understanding and encounter substantial hurdles and issues. The IT engineering world becomes further complex on a daily basis. IT products are more intricate and large-scaled, projects are becoming more demanding, challenging to regulate and achieve. Complexity associates with critical risk, great failure rates, and substandard performance; Ergo investigating project complexity and how to design for it becomes pertinent for efficient IT project management. In the same frame of reference, information technology plays a big part in today’s economy. As complexity is omnipresent in present-day engineering, in addition to project management, it performs, and provides innovation, creativeness and performance. The intent of this project was aimed to comprehend project complexity within IT and further its theoretical groundwork and practice. It provided a rounded perspective and delivers understanding into the nature of its effects. Furthermore, it puts forward a structured framework, by incorporating methods from both project management and user experience to generate a framework comprised of a structured process: organize, establish, investigate, design responses, track and regulate. These are delineated and explained as inputs and outputs, alongside a record of accessible tools and systems. Grounded in this framework, novel practical tools using user experience methods are suggested in order to: determine complexity, evaluate its causes and impacts; and examine and regulate complexity improvement plans. The research is anchored in practice, in addition to the literature review on project management, systems thinking, user experience design, systems engineering, vulnerability and risk management, systems and complexity theory, systems engineering and IS/IT. This was based on a qualitative exploratory approach, rooted in design science. Various sequences of design and validation were executed alongside semi-structured interviews with field experts, established on a study of complex project cases in Information Technology. A qualitative evaluation comprised of the application and reiterated valuation of the suggested tools, in various live projects. Ultimately the thesis aims to assist project managers with tools for attaining project success and decreasing failure risk within complex project settings in Information Technology. Managing complexity allows for the accomplishment of high-risk projects within Information Technology, assists further in project cognizance, as well as permits for better organization and scheduling of tools and resources.