Technical: this is the easiest to understand, insofar as you have the resources, processes and methods qualified to make it explicit.
Relational: when different professions, hierarchical levels and decision-making bodies are involved. How will each of these players react to the change inherent in any project?
The main risk associated with this complexity is not achieving the objective assigned to the project. Fortunately, there are a number of levers that can be used to significantly increase the chances of success. Here's an equation to help you remember them:
[(scope/number of batches+ steering)x σ] communication+resources, with σ= sponsor constant
1/ Project governance and sponsorship: two levers for decision-making
Setting up a governance structure is the organizational answer to establishing the project's specific operating rules. The bodies that make it up are responsible for taking stock of progress and making decisions, sometimes difficult ones, such as adjusting the project's trajectory in relation to what was initially planned. Regular meetings of these bodies encourage the expression and involvement of all stakeholders.
The sponsor is also an essential part of the decision-making process. His or her position of influence and commitment to the project's success helps to keep it on course. Without a sponsor, there's no transmission belt to the highest levels of the hierarchy. Without visibility, there's little guarantee of the project's survival.
2/ A clearly defined scope and regular monitoring optimize the project's operational security
Defining the perimeter is a tricky business, since it has to meet two opposing objectives:
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- be sufficiently comprehensive to meet the needs of project stakeholders and thereby encourage their involvement
- and remain realistic and therefore achievable.
The first part of the exercise is designed to open up the fields of possibility: the aim is to give free rein to the generation of ideas, so as to glimpse the scope of possible actions. The second part consists in reducing the perimeter to an addressable reality, in which case the subdivision is the solution to be favored, as it enables better control of the cost/quality/time triangle. The reality of a perimeter is often the result of compromises made during negotiations between the various players involved.
This perimeter is to be officially published as part of a "project contract", to which reference can be made, particularly when managing a fixed-price contract with an external service provider, where the perimeter can become an adjustment variable in relation to costs.
Of course, regular monitoring of costs actually incurred, milestones reached and quality of deliverables is essential to ensure that the commitments made in the "project contract" are being met. Since the success of a project is built up as it goes along, these indicators announce the color of the project: from green if the trend is favorable, to red if there are hard points.
To find out more about KESTIO 's Change Management team and how to implement them in your environment, send an e-mail to:kestio subject: Project Management
3/ Resource management and communication are key to the performance of a complex project
Of course, the skills of the resources needed to solve the problems identified within the scope of the project are necessary, but not sufficient. It is the dynamics of the project team's members that are the key to the project's day-to-day performance, and have a direct impact on the cost/quality/delivery triangle. A project can be delayed by technical issues that are harder to resolve than expected. But it can also come to a standstill if those involved fail to share the same objectives and coordinate their efforts to achieve them. Team motivation is enhanced by quick wins and celebrations.
Communication also needs to be meticulous, combining a truthful, fact-based discourse with the promotion of the project's identified benefits: the challenge is to face up to the difficulties encountered, while at the same time maintaining support, with constancy and determination.
At KESTIO, we're convinced that the successful management of a complex project depends on the most objective possible consideration of its context, and on the project manager's clear-sightedness regarding the strengths available, but also the potential breaking points that can destabilize the whole. And from this starting point, to be able to build a common trajectory and a collective adventure. At KESTIO, we've helped a number of corporate projects along the path, never straight, to success.
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