The subject of management is renowned for its addiction to fads and fashions.
Project Management is no exception. The issue of interest for this paper is the
establishment of standards in the area, specifically the ‘College of Complex
Project Managers’ and their ‘competency standard for complex project managers’.
Both the college and the standard have generated significant interest in the
Project Management community. Whilst the need for development of the means to
manage complex projects is acknowledged, a critical evaluation show significant
flaws in the definition of complex in this case, the process by which the
College and its standard have emerged, and the content of the standard. If
Project Management is to continue to develop as a profession, it will need an
evidence-based approach to the generation of knowledge and standards. The issues
raised by the evaluation provide the case for a portfolio of research that
extends the existing bodies of knowledge into large-scale complicated (or major)
projects. We propose that it would be owned by the practitioner community,
rather than focused on one organization. Research questions are proposed that
would commence this stream of activity towards an intelligent synthesis of what
is required to manage in both complicated and truly complex environments. This
is a revised paper previously presented at the 21st IPMA World Congress on
Project Management Cracow
Is data on this page outdated, violates copyrights or anything else? Report the problem now and we will take corresponding actions after reviewing your request.