In this post I present the Model for Managing Dynamism in Projects. Strategies that increase speed and flexibility can be used to mitigate rapid change. Speed and flexibility inform the broad and practical approaches listed in the model. The approaches include: emergent iterative planning, guideline controls, flexible leadership with rapid decision-making, timely and efficient communication, and an egalitarian goal-orientated culture.
Speed is defined as a higher than normal rate of project execution to deliver project goals before excessive change reduces benefits. Flexibility is defined as the ability to react with minimal penalty in time, cost or performance in response to change in order to maximise benefits in a turbulent business environment. The core components that make up the dynamism problem, change and speed of change, are depicted in Figure 1.
Figure 1 - Core Components of the Dynamism Problem (Collyer 2013, p127)
In the Model for Managing Dynamism in Projects, increased speed and flexibility are the core concepts mitigating the core components of dynamism, shown by the green arrows in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2 - Core Concepts Mitigating Dynamism (Collyer 2013, p128)
Speed and flexibility are the pivotal concepts informing the broad approaches and the practical approaches as shown by the solid black filled arrows in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3 - The Model for Managing Dynamism in Projects (Collyer 2013, p129)
References
Collyer, S. (2013). Managing Dynamism in Projects - A Theory-Building Study of Approaches Used in Practice, The University of Queensland. PhD
