Project Complexity

Complexity and its nature plays an important role in the area of project management. Despite having number of debates on this subject matter, studies suggest lack of definition and reasonable understanding of complexity in relation to management of complex projects. As it is considered that project complexity and project performance are closely related, it is important to define and measure complexity of the project for project management to be effective.

By applying the discovery in measuring work complexity descried in Requisite Organization and Stratified Systems Theory, Dr Elliott Jaques classifies projects and project work (stages, tasks) into basic 7 levels of project complexity based on such criteria as time-span of discretion and complexity of a project’s output:

• Level 1 Project – improve the direct output of an activity (quantity, quality, time) within a business process with targeted completion time up to 3 months.

• Level 2 Project – develop and improve compliance to a business process with targeted completion time from 3 months to 1 year.

• Level 3 Project – develop, change and improve a business process with targeted completion time from 1 to 2 years.

• Level 4 Project – develop, change and improve a functional system with targeted completion time from 2 to 5 years.

• Level 5 Project – develop, change and improve a group of functional systems / business function with targeted completion time from 5 to 10 years.

• Level 6 Project – develop, change and improve a whole single value chain of a company with targeted completion time from 10 to 20 years.

• Level 7 Project – develop, change and improve multiple value chains of a company with target completion time from 20 to 50 years.

Benefits from measuring Project Complexity is to improve project people feasibility by:

• Match the level of a project’s complexity with effective targeted completion time of a project

• Match the level of a project’s complexity with the respective capability level of the project manager

• Match the level of a project task’s complexity with the respective capability of the project members