Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry Sectors

Increasing complexity of projects is mentioned as one of the reasons for project failure—still. This paper presents a comparative research to investigate how project complexity was perceived by project practitioners in different industry sectors. Five sectors were included: process industry, constru...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marian Bosch-Rekveldt, Hans Bakker, Marcel Hertogh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Complexity
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3246508
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832556557531873280
author Marian Bosch-Rekveldt
Hans Bakker
Marcel Hertogh
author_facet Marian Bosch-Rekveldt
Hans Bakker
Marcel Hertogh
author_sort Marian Bosch-Rekveldt
collection DOAJ
description Increasing complexity of projects is mentioned as one of the reasons for project failure—still. This paper presents a comparative research to investigate how project complexity was perceived by project practitioners in different industry sectors. Five sectors were included: process industry, construction industry, ICT, high-tech product development, and food processing industry. In total, more than 140 projects were included in the research, hence providing a broad view on Dutch project practice. From the complexity assessments, it is concluded that only one complexity element was present in the top complexity elements of projects across the five sectors: the high project schedule drive. The variety of external stakeholders’ perspectives, a lack of resources and skills availability, and interference with existing site were found in the top lists of three sectors. It was concluded that a framework to grasp project complexity could support the management of complex projects by creating awareness for the (expected) complexities. Further research could be focused on the subjective character of complexity as well as on the application of cross-sector learning, since this research does show similarities between large technical projects in different sectors.
format Article
id doaj-art-80000432f2e04c51aa1e6be3f7d10115
institution Kabale University
issn 1076-2787
1099-0526
language English
publishDate 2018-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Complexity
spelling doaj-art-80000432f2e04c51aa1e6be3f7d101152025-02-03T05:45:06ZengWileyComplexity1076-27871099-05262018-01-01201810.1155/2018/32465083246508Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry SectorsMarian Bosch-Rekveldt0Hans Bakker1Marcel Hertogh2Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, NetherlandsFaculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, NetherlandsFaculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, NetherlandsIncreasing complexity of projects is mentioned as one of the reasons for project failure—still. This paper presents a comparative research to investigate how project complexity was perceived by project practitioners in different industry sectors. Five sectors were included: process industry, construction industry, ICT, high-tech product development, and food processing industry. In total, more than 140 projects were included in the research, hence providing a broad view on Dutch project practice. From the complexity assessments, it is concluded that only one complexity element was present in the top complexity elements of projects across the five sectors: the high project schedule drive. The variety of external stakeholders’ perspectives, a lack of resources and skills availability, and interference with existing site were found in the top lists of three sectors. It was concluded that a framework to grasp project complexity could support the management of complex projects by creating awareness for the (expected) complexities. Further research could be focused on the subjective character of complexity as well as on the application of cross-sector learning, since this research does show similarities between large technical projects in different sectors.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3246508
spellingShingle Marian Bosch-Rekveldt
Hans Bakker
Marcel Hertogh
Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry Sectors
Complexity
title Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry Sectors
title_full Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry Sectors
title_fullStr Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry Sectors
title_full_unstemmed Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry Sectors
title_short Comparing Project Complexity across Different Industry Sectors
title_sort comparing project complexity across different industry sectors
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3246508
work_keys_str_mv AT marianboschrekveldt comparingprojectcomplexityacrossdifferentindustrysectors
AT hansbakker comparingprojectcomplexityacrossdifferentindustrysectors
AT marcelhertogh comparingprojectcomplexityacrossdifferentindustrysectors