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Course Syllabus
Project Complexity
Index
1. Introduction
1.1. Course overview
1.2. Learning objectives
1.3. What we expect from you
1.4. What you can expect from us/the course team
2. Course structure and Professional Certificate Program
3. Assessment
4. Resources & Tools
1. Introduction
Underestimating project complexity is widely accepted as one of the major causes of project failure. Based on international benchmarking activities (Merrow, 2010), we know that an average of 40% of projects do not deliver what they promised; for mega projects in the oil and gas industry, this figure is even worse (Ernst&Young, 2014).
As with most external factors, many of the causes and consequences of complexity are difficult to avoid or control. When dealing with complexity, standard practices in the field of project management often overlook the inherent uncertainties linked to the length and scale of engineering and infrastructure projects and their constantly changing environments. The situation is exacerbated by rapidly evolving technologies and social change.
Attempts to overcome these challenges by simply trying to reduce their causes is not enough.
1.1. Course overview
In this
- Getting started (March 7th, 2019)
- Module 1: Understanding project complexity (March 7th, 2019)
- Module 2: Project complexity assessment (March 14th, 2019)
- Module 3: Managing project complexity (March 21st, 2019)
- Module 4: Mastering complexity (March 28th, 2019)
- Module 5: Review (April 4th, 2019)
1.2. What you will learn
In this course, you will learn our approach to mastering complexity,
Project success starts with recognizing the main drivers of complexity, which can be highly subjective and highly dynamic. In this course, you will learn to identify what makes a project complex and how to perform a complexity assessment.
Examining the elements of a project (such as interfaces, stakeholders, cultures, environment, technology, etc.) and their intricate interactions is key to mastering complexity.
In the verified track (see later in the Syllabus as well) you will analyze the above elements in the context of your own project. Then, based on our complexity framework, you will identify the complexity footprint of your project and use it to adapt your management processes. With personalized guidance and feedback from our world-class instructors, you will learn how to recognize what competencies you need to develop and how to adapt your management style accordingly, not only to improve project performance but also to enhance your decision-making capacity.
In short, you will learn to:
- To identify complexity and its elements,
- To perform a project complexity assessment,
- To develop a complexity footprint,
- To adapt your management processes to fit the complexities of your project,
- To master project complexity!
1.3. What we expect from you
As an online
This course is meant to be a place where you learn with and from others. In this sense, we'd like you to experience collaboration and
When communicating with your fellow learners and course team using the discussion forum, please make sure you take into account the Communication and Collaboration guidelines.
1.4. What you can expect from us/the course team
The course team will release the weekly content, send important announcements, monitor and answer questions on a regular basis. We'll try to have a daily presence at the forum, but as you might understand we cannot promise to quickly answer everyone. But we'll do our best ;-)! On
2. Course structure & Professional Certificate Program
The course is organized in 5 weeks. A brief summary of each week is presented below. Detailed instructions and resources will be provided during the course.
Getting started (March 7th, 2019)
In the getting started section you’ll get to know the course structure, get familiarized with the virtual learning environment, complete your profile, meet your fellow students and the e-moderator. These introductory tasks should be completed at the beginning of the course, after your first login.
Module 1: Understanding project complexity (March 7th, 2019)
The first week introduces the program with some questions to help you understand project complexity. What does it entail? What is it comprised of? What are the main models of complexity? What is the (subjective) nature of complexity?
Module 2: Project complexity assessment (March 14th, 2019)
You will create a complexity footprint for your own project. You will use the TOE framework as a means to grasp project complexity. There will be an emphasis on identifying, assessing and understanding project complexity at the earliest possible stages. You will submit a complexity assessment of your specific project.
Module 3: Managing project complexity (March 21st, 2019)
Now that you are aware of the project’s complexity, we will discuss how to manage the particular complexities faced. We will provide a palette of different management approaches. You will compare these approaches with the way your own project has been managed.
Module 4: Mastering complexity (March 28th, 2019)
And finally, we will discuss how to adjust your management approach to the specific complexities experienced (or expected) and how to maximize the value of your project. This is not about decreasing complexity but rather dealing with complexity and embracing it to fully realize the project’s potential. One size does not fit all! You will submit your fit-for-purpose management strategy for your specific project.
Module 5: Review (April 4th, 2019)
Time for reflection. In this final
Part of a professional certificate programme
As you might know, this MOOC is part of a Professional Certificate Programme (PCP). A PCP bundles different courses and can result in a certificate if those different courses are passed with a verified certificate. This course belongs to: Management of Engineering Projects; Dealing with Complexity. This PCP consists of 2 courses:
- The course Management of Engineering Projects: Preparing for Success, covering the basic aspects of project management.
- This course, Mastering Project Complexity, diving into the details of the complexities typically faced in today’s projects and how to master these!
In order to get a PCP certificate, you will need to enroll for the PCP and to pass the two courses in their verified tracks.
In the verified track of this course we offer you a full learning experience including individual teacher’s feedback and additional illustrations of what is happening in practice. Furthermore you’ll have access to several papers on this topic. This comes on top of the free content that consists of video lectures and self-assessments. In the verified track we encourage you to bring your own project case, to directly apply the new knowledge gained!
Each of the modules follows a similar format. We start a module with a brief introduction and the learning objectives for that module, explaining which part is free content and which part belongs to the verified track. Each week there will be some basic content that is available to all participants. This basic content consists of video-lectures and self-assessments. It will give you a good understanding of the topics at hand. In the verified track, you will be able to further deepen your knowledge. If you follow the verified track, you will be encouraged to bring your own project case, starting in Module 2. You will receive our feedback as well as feedback from peer colleagues regarding your own case! This however means that the end of Module 2 serves as a deadline to upgrade to the verified track of the course. An overview of all papers and access to the course content after the course end date are only available for the verified participants. At the end of a module, we post a feedback video with our observations during that specific module for our verified participants.
This is the overview (black = free content, red = content of the verified track).
Do you need financial assistance? EdX offers up to a 90% discount on our verified certificates to learners who cannot afford to pay full price. Check the edX support page for financial assistance.
3. Assessment
For our verified participants: your final grade is composed of 2 parts:
- 30% comes from the complexity assessment in Module 2 (peer reviewed),
- 70% comes from the fit-for-purpose management strategy in Module 4 (staff reviewed).
Please respect the following deadlines:
- Module 2: Assignment 1: Complexity assessment, Submission March 21st, peer review due March 28th (12:00 UTC).
- Module 4: Assignment 2: Fit-for-purpose management strategy, Submission April 4th, optional peer review April 11th (12:00 UTC).
The weekly quizzes have to be finished by the end of the course. These weekly quizzes provide all learners some feedback on their understanding of the course content.
Passing the course (verified participants only)
In order to pass the course, you have to score at least 70%. If you wish to check your progress, please go to the ‘progress’ page in the top horizontal bar of your course.
4. Resources & Tools
In the verified track of this course we offer you a full learning experience including individual teacher’s feedback and additional illustrations of what is happening in practice. Furthermore you’ll have access to several papers on this topic (downloads are meant for personal use only!). This comes on top of the free content that consists of video lectures and self-assessments. In the verified track we encourage you to bring your own project case, to directly apply the new knowledge gained!
There is a general discussion forum in the course for all students of MEP201x. This discussion forum is subdivided into many forums. You may use these forums to discuss course concepts, problem-solving approaches, interesting references, or other topics related to the course. You may use it to ask questions. Besides general questions, we stimulate lively interactions with your fellow course members by actively using the discussion forum of the edX platform. The forum is moderated by the course staff and the community team.
For our verified participants, we have some dedicated forums to discuss their specific projects.
Please observe the appropriate online etiquette as outlined in the Forum Guidelines.
The course materials of this course are Copyright Delft University of Technology and are (unless otherwise indicated) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
If you choose to reuse or repost DelftX course materials you must give proper attribution. Please utilize the following citation and refer to this MOOC:
"[TITLE OF WORK –with hyperlink to material] by TU Delft / [LECTURER NAME -with hyperlink to lecturers page] is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0. This material was created by or adapted from material posted on the MOOC Project Management: Mastering Complexity.”
Or if it is a derivative please use following citation:
“This work [Your title] by [Your name] is a derivative of “TITLE OF WORK –with hyperlink to material] by TU Delft / [LECTURER NAME -with hyperlink to lecturers page] and (re)licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0. This material was created by or adapted from material posted on the MOOC Project Management: Mastering Complexity.”
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