An Assistance to Project Risk Management Based on Complex Systems Theory and Agile Project Management

Franck Marle

doi:10.1155/2020/3739129

Abstract

Project Risk Management is crucial in determining the future performance of a complex project. Increasing project complexity makes it more and more difficult to anticipate potential events that could affect the project and to make effective decisions to reduce project risk exposure. To tackle these conceptual and managerial issues, the proposed approach introduces Complex Systems Theory-based improvements into some PRM subprocesses and runs the global PRM process using Agile Project Management principles. We argue that these advanced techniques for managing project risk complexity, notably risk interdependencies, are coherent with the distributed, self-organized nature of agile teams. This new way of structuring and executing Project Risk Management offers the possibility to make decisions more frequently, when needed, with a more distributed authority, and with richer information about anticipation of events and consequences of actions. First results show an appropriation of this combined approach by project members due to agile principles that allows for getting the more reliable information promised by Complex Systems Theory.

Highlights

Project Risk Management (PRM) is the process of managing potential events that could affect, positively or negatively, project activities and project objectives [1, 2]
Our aim is to assist the management of project risks by building a hybrid approach, combining Complex Systems eory (CST) and Agile Project Management (APM)
Two experiments are ongoing, applying agile principles to improve PRM in organizations that are already using complex system-based principles. Both are big organizations running big projects. Both recognized the usefulness of CST-based Project Risk Management, albeit with difficulties in implementing it properly, mostly based on human resistance and governance challenges. is work requires a lot of time to gather data, interview people, explain new principles, tools, and techniques, prototype on a part of the project and project team in order to get a kernel of “pushing people,” monitoring the correct application of both complex-based and agile principles, reinterview people, and draw conclusions at the end of each iteration

Summary

Introduction

Project Risk Management (PRM) is the process of managing potential events that could affect, positively or negatively, project activities and project objectives [1, 2]. It has been shown that actual Project Risk Management practices in agile contexts but without conceptual assistance did not correspond to recommended methodologies and expected results [5]. Is is why PRM needs to be adapted in order to integrate advanced complexity-related and alternative management principles. Previous implementations have shown the interest of such complex system-based techniques applied to Project Risk Management, in terms of prediction precision of risk network potential behavior; it has been observed that limits of this conceptual approach were in the human aspect of implementation [55,56,57]. Agile methodologies have been developed to fight some limits of classical command-and-control management, and to improve adaptability and responsiveness to change [72]. There are still many challenges in making decisions, notably about availability and reliability of information when making more frequent, short-term decisions [73]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion