Lecture 5: Project Dynamics Flashcards
What are the present problems with project management literature?
- inadequate project management
- bad estimation of costs
- change of scope
- inadequate communication with environmnet
- environmental factors
- inadequate information
- inadequate organisation
- coordination problems
- contractual problems
- incompetent people
What are the failure factors of current projects?
- Anglo saxon culture ( uncertain certainties)
- Fixed output and input at the start of a project
- Negation of complexity
- Misconception about parties working together on a common goal
- Tailor made unique buildings
What are the characteristics of the Anglo Saxon culture?
- believe in a utopic (idealistic) and fully achievable world
- dogmatic approach of observed phenomenae
- actions based on uncertain certainties based on inductive methods
- reduction and decomposition
- actions are initiated on mechanistic cause/ consequence reasoning, which is mainly treated in a high rate of mathematical quantification
- order- oriented: the output is translated in tactical and operational tasks, which have to be achieved precisely.
- hierarchical management organisation
- rule based: extrinsic motivation with employees
- centralisation of power and responsibilites
- punctual planning and control cycle
- emphasis on control of processes
- emphasis on standardisation and uniformity
- recruitement employees mainly based on competence to pass on commands to lower organisational units
What are the characteristics of Rhinelander’s culture?
- live in existing world
- axiomatic (taken for granted) approach of observed phenomenae based on deductive methods
- actions based on certain uncertainties
- integration and clustering
- actions are based on observations of the behaviour of complex systems in its environments
- mission oriented: the outcome is more important than the output
- broad overall plan without details, provided with a simple command and communication structure
- flat organisational structure with semi autonomously operating units
- principle based: intrinsic motivation with employees
- decentralisation of power and responsibilites
- only basis premises with respect to why (mission), what (vision), and how (strategy)
- emphasis on control of products
- emphasis on tailor made differentiation and variety
- recruitment employees mainly basesd on knowledge and skills
What are the 3 factors of triple constraint?
- time
- costs
- performance
Productivity =
Productivity = effectiveness x effeciency
How is project effectiveness found?
Effectiveness found by comparison of normative performance and actual performance.
How is project efficiency found?
Efficiency found by comparison of normative efforts and actual efforts.
What are the consequences of perception 1?
- subjective instead of objective (bound to persons)
- relative instead of absolute (bound to models)
- partial instead of total (bound to goals)
What are the consequences of perception 2?
- over estimation of output (performance) at the start of a project
- underestimation of input (time and costs) at the start of a project
What are 3 causes of negation of complexity?
- hierarchical barriers
- functional barriers
- operative islands
What are misconceptions of working together with all involved parties?
- Stakeholders: interested in value of ouput (and value for money)
- Client: interested in cost-effectiveness (output for price)
- Contractor: interested in cost-efficiency (price/profit/risk/cost)
Explain how each project is unique.
- client
- stakeholders
- location
- soil conditions
- groundwater conditions
- climatological conditions
- regulations
- markets
- economics
- finance
What are common aims of projects?
- finding a solution for a problem
- developing a system in its environment
- creating a form in a context
- delivering maximum output using minimum input
What are the principles of project dynamics?
- certain uncertainties
Consider a project as:
- a part of asset management of porfolios or networks
- a set of parties with conflicting interests and a set of variables
- a problem solving process with unpredictable outcome
- an artificially accelerated evolution process
- a circular process (reused of components and knowledge)
What are the 3 main components of the dynamic control model?
- environment
- controller
- controlled system
The controlled system influences the environment and the environment influences the controlled system through desired behaviour
What are the conditions for effective control?
- goal
- model of system in its environment
- information
- control variety
What are the goals of dynamic control?
- fixed relations between the economical variables of a project can bring about benefit sharing between the main parties of a project
- benefit sharing is the main step towards a common goal: strive for as maximum total benefit as possible
- variables should be real variables (don’t fix the variables)
Whats the difference between static and dynamic project management?
- Static PM has fixed variables and loose relations
- Dynamic PM has loose variables and fixed relations
Explain complexity of a system.
- is a set of all relations between all elements
- the structure of a system
- can not be decomposed
