Typology of Projects
The typology helps to give a rational presentation of the vast range of undertakings where project management principles can be applied. It also gives a clue to the nature of the projects and the difficulties of managing them. Uncertainty particularly affects project planning, and complexity particularly affects project control. Projects with high uncertainty are likely to be especially difficult to define and set realistic objectives for.
If the exact details of a project are subject to change during the course of its execution, the planning process is particularly difficult. Resources may be committed, times may be agreed, but if the objectives of the project change or the environmental conditions change, or if some activity is delayed, then all the plans which were made prior to the changes will need to be redrawn. When uncertainty is high, the whole project planning process needs to be sufficiently flexible to cope with the consequences of change. For example, the implementation of a political treaty in the European Union is subject to the ratification of all the member governments.
Politics being an uncertain business, any of the member countries might either fail to ratify the treaty or attempt to renegotiate it. The central planners at EU headquarters must therefore have contingency plans in place which indicate how they might have to change the €project' to cope with any political changes. Projects with high levels of complexity need not necessarily be difficult to plan, although they might involve considerable effort; controlling them can be problematic, however.
As projects become more detailed with many separate activities, resources and groups of people involved the scope for things to go wrong increases. Furthermore, as the number of separate activities in a project increases, the ways in which they can impact on each other increases exponentially. This increases the effort involved in monitoring each activity. It also increases the chances of overlooking some part of the project which is deviating from the plan. Most significantly, it increases the €knock-on' effect of any problem.
The €laws of project management' which were issued by the American production and Inventory Control Society give a flavor of uncertain and complex projects:
€ No major project is ever installed on time, within budget, or with the same staff that started it. Yours will not be the first.
€ Projects progress quickly until they become 90 per cent complete, then they remains at 90 per cent complete forever.
€ One advantage of fuzzy project objectives is that they let you avoid the embarrassment of estimating the corresponding costs.
€ When things are going well, something will go wrong. When things just cannot get any worse, they will. When things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.
€ If the project content is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.
€ No system is ever completely debugged. Attempts to debug a system inevitably introduce new bugs that are even harder to find.
€ A carelessly planned project will take three times longer to complete than expected; a carefully planned project will take only twice as long.
€ Project teams detest progress reporting because it vividly manifests their lack of progress.
If the exact details of a project are subject to change during the course of its execution, the planning process is particularly difficult. Resources may be committed, times may be agreed, but if the objectives of the project change or the environmental conditions change, or if some activity is delayed, then all the plans which were made prior to the changes will need to be redrawn. When uncertainty is high, the whole project planning process needs to be sufficiently flexible to cope with the consequences of change. For example, the implementation of a political treaty in the European Union is subject to the ratification of all the member governments.
Politics being an uncertain business, any of the member countries might either fail to ratify the treaty or attempt to renegotiate it. The central planners at EU headquarters must therefore have contingency plans in place which indicate how they might have to change the €project' to cope with any political changes. Projects with high levels of complexity need not necessarily be difficult to plan, although they might involve considerable effort; controlling them can be problematic, however.
As projects become more detailed with many separate activities, resources and groups of people involved the scope for things to go wrong increases. Furthermore, as the number of separate activities in a project increases, the ways in which they can impact on each other increases exponentially. This increases the effort involved in monitoring each activity. It also increases the chances of overlooking some part of the project which is deviating from the plan. Most significantly, it increases the €knock-on' effect of any problem.
The €laws of project management' which were issued by the American production and Inventory Control Society give a flavor of uncertain and complex projects:
€ No major project is ever installed on time, within budget, or with the same staff that started it. Yours will not be the first.
€ Projects progress quickly until they become 90 per cent complete, then they remains at 90 per cent complete forever.
€ One advantage of fuzzy project objectives is that they let you avoid the embarrassment of estimating the corresponding costs.
€ When things are going well, something will go wrong. When things just cannot get any worse, they will. When things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.
€ If the project content is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.
€ No system is ever completely debugged. Attempts to debug a system inevitably introduce new bugs that are even harder to find.
€ A carelessly planned project will take three times longer to complete than expected; a carefully planned project will take only twice as long.
€ Project teams detest progress reporting because it vividly manifests their lack of progress.
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