HBR or Review of Harvard
Business, in 1959, published an article regarding PM; Paul O. Gaddis’s The
Project Manager (Gaddis, 1959). Project manager’s role and the type of training
for project management were described by him (Ireland & Cleland, 2006).
In the 1960s, the traditional
PM was established in America and NASA's Department of Defence (T. Mayer, Wald,
&Gleich, 2008). Based on the evaluation of tough projects, a number of
standards were developed. That is why a variety of different standards and
methods of project management are globally used at present. With their
inconsistency, the present requirements of PM are fulfilled (T. Mayer et al.,
2008). In terms of complicated project management, linearity, as it has been
utilized, is not a sustainable solution and it indicates that the traditional
PM isn't valid for complicated project management.
Managers of the project should
understand that not everything is capable of being handled in PM. Traditional
PM's fault is that managers can not only control and predict but also
understand a specific environment. And the concept of empowerment with respect
to an individual should be converted into PM (L. Crawford, 2013).
At present, managers often
seem to express their surprise when projects don't end up how they want. Since
the publishing of 1959 article of Gaddis, PM has been a concept of various
conferences and books but the estimated rate of failure of each project is more
than thirty percent and overall, seventy-five percent don't achieve success (M.
Frank, Sadeh, &Ashkenasi, 2011).
For this, an important reason
has been attributed to complication and it has been predicted that increasing
virtualization, internationalization, and even globalization of projects cause
it (Scheiter, Scheel, & Klink, 2007), occurring due to the consequence of
rising customer heterogeneity and dynamic nature of markets (Friedli, Werani,
Thaler, Stieneker, &Kickuth, 2006).
Other researches predicted
issues that would emerge in PM over the next ten years. In accordance with the
IBM survey of 2011: "The essential CIO" seemed to state that almost
3,108 or fifty-seven percent managers expect a powerful increment in changes
and complication in projects till almost 2017. And in PMO leaders' Gartner
survey, thirty percent expect that most important modification requests for the
leadership of different complicated programs which drive certain objectives (Swanson,
2012).
Actually, this trend is
correlated to the revolution in IT or information and technology that took
place over the recent years. At present, the systems which were closed are
connected with others, serving to raise the complication. For instance, more
competition is forced by the organization as the Internet is utilized by
consumers in comparing and searching for businesses selling similar services
and products (Sargut& Gunther McGrath, 2011). Since the advancement in IT
changed the whole globe business by offering smarter, cheaper, and faster
solutions, processes of business became even more complex. For surviving in a
changing environment, organizations began to create partnerships, consortia,
and alliances with regulatory entities, competitors, important political
groups, consumers, and suppliers (Hass, 2007; Thamhain, 2013). In projects, the
ambiguity level rises as more organizations or people are involved and as these
mergers introduce different kinds of technologies (Thamhain, 2013). Generally,
it is impossible to forecast the result of systems which are complicated.
Although relationships can be determined in some complicated processes,
strategies and planning are less dependable since a past behavior might not
take place this time (Sargut& Gunther McGrath, 2011).
It is significant for the
project managers to be ready for the projects of the 21st century that seem to
require more inflexible budgets and aggressive schedules of time. In addition,
contemporary projects' requirements are poorly understood and often ambiguous
(Hass, 2009). For increasing the effective completion, both the complication
and project management have to be studied. Relationships have to be determined
and it is significant for the proposals to be created which would allow better
management of all complicated projects which are moving forward.
To summarise, it can be said
that the typical perception is that in a project, anything can be predicted and
controlled (L. Crawford, 2013). But the increasing virtualization and
globalization of projects seem to cause a correlative increment in the
complexity while mirroring markets' dynamic nature (Scheiter et al., 2007).
Additionally, academic and practical researches have affirmed that the prime
issue being faced by project managers is their inability of recognizing the
complexity and its signs at early stages (T. Williams, Klakegg, Walker,
Andersen, & Magnussen, 2012). Seemingly, this leads to unsatisfactory
results and at present, several organizations attempt to handle complication
with module structure's utilization on different products but it is also
important for managers of the project to be prepared for 21st-century project's
unique demands (Hass, 2009).