Lecture 5: Project Dynamics

Question 1

What are the present problems with project management literature?

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

What are the failure factors of current projects?

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

What are the characteristics of the Anglo Saxon culture?

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

What are the characteristics of Rhinelander’s culture?

Answer 4

• 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

Question 5

What are the 3 factors of triple constraint?

Answer 5

• time
• costs
• performance

Question 6

Productivity =

Answer 6

Productivity = effectiveness x effeciency

Question 7

How is project effectiveness found?

Answer 7

Effectiveness found by comparison of normative performance and actual performance.

Question 8

How is project efficiency found?

Answer 8

Efficiency found by comparison of normative efforts and actual efforts.

Question 9

What are the consequences of perception 1?

Answer 9

• subjective instead of objective (bound to persons)
• relative instead of absolute (bound to models)
• partial instead of total (bound to goals)

Question 10

What are the consequences of perception 2?

Answer 10

• over estimation of output (performance) at the start of a project
• underestimation of input (time and costs) at the start of a project

Question 11

What are 3 causes of negation of complexity?

Answer 11

• hierarchical barriers
• functional barriers
• operative islands

Question 12

What are misconceptions of working together with all involved parties?

Answer 12

• 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)

Question 13

Explain how each project is unique.

Answer 13

• client
• stakeholders
• location
• soil conditions
• groundwater conditions
• climatological conditions
• regulations
• markets
• economics
• finance

Question 14

What are common aims of projects?

Answer 14

• finding a solution for a problem
• developing a system in its environment
• creating a form in a context
• delivering maximum output using minimum input

Question 15

What are the principles of project dynamics?

Answer 15

• 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)

Question 16

What are the 3 main components of the dynamic control model?

Answer 16

• environment
• controller
• controlled system

The controlled system influences the environment and the environment influences the controlled system through desired behaviour

Question 17

What are the conditions for effective control?

Answer 17

• goal
• model of system in its environment
• information
• control variety

Question 18

What are the goals of dynamic control?

Answer 18

• 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)

Question 19

Whats the difference between static and dynamic project management?

Answer 19

• Static PM has fixed variables and loose relations

- Dynamic PM has loose variables and fixed relations

Question 20

Explain complexity of a system.

Answer 20

• is a set of all relations between all elements
• the structure of a system
• can not be decomposed