Adaptive Project Management: A tool for more realistic municipal planning?

Municipal developmental projects are typically embedded in complex, dynamic environments involving many unpredictable components with diverse stakeholders and are characterised by a high degree of uncertainty. Most projects fail - largely because conventional project management methodology cannot adequately adjust to a dynamic environment. In a rapidly changing environment a highly adaptive model for planning and managing projects is required. Managing projects under conditions of complexity and uncertainty challenges the project team to be creative and adaptive. This requires a shift in thinking about projects and how they should be organised and delivered. Also known as “agile” Project Management, Adaptive Project Management (APM) is an approach to projects for which traditional methods are inappropriate. The fundamental concept underlying APM is that scope is variable, and that continuous customer input is key to success. It is the purpose of this article to explore the potential contributions of APM as a more effective and realistic tool for project planning and execution in a turbulent municipal planning context.

[1]  Rory Burke,et al.  Project Management: Planning and Control Techniques , 2001 .

[2]  Jackie Phahlamohlaka,et al.  Community-driven projects : reflections on a success story. A case study of science education and information technology in South Africa , 2008 .

[3]  Terry Williams,et al.  Rethinking Project Management: Researching the actuality of projects , 2006 .

[4]  Chris Maser,et al.  Land-use planning for sustainable development , 2000 .

[5]  R. Lewin,et al.  Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos , 1992 .

[6]  Ken Schwaber,et al.  Agile Software Development with SCRUM , 2001 .

[7]  S. Cicmil.  Understanding Project Management Practice through Interpretative and Critical Research Perspectives , 2006 .

[8]  Carl J. Walters,et al.  Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources , 1986 .

[9]  David Baccarini,et al.  The concept of project complexity—a review , 1996 .

[10]  Lawton M. Hartman,et al.  Efficiency and Uplift: Scientific Management in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920 , 1964 .

[11]  Trevor L. Young,et al.  The Handbook of Project Management: A Practical Guide to Effective Policies and Procedures , 1998 .

[12]  Terry Williams,et al.  The Need for New Paradigms for Complex Projects , 1999 .

[13]  Saskia Harkema,et al.  A complex adaptive perspective on learning within innovation projects , 2003 .

[14]  T. Cooke‐Davies,et al.  We're not in Kansas Anymore, Toto: Mapping the Strange Landscape of Complexity Theory, and Its Relationship to Project Management , 2007, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[15]  E. Lorenz.  Deterministic nonperiodic flow , 1963 .

[16]  Philippe Kruchten,et al.  Agile project management , 2021, Project Management, Planning and Control.

[17]  C. S. Holling.  Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management , 2005 .

[18]  Cnrl Natural.  An Intelligent Agent Approach to Adaptive Project Management , 2008 .

[19]  Aaron J. Shenhar,et al.  Reinventing project management : the diamond approach to successful growth & innovation , 2007 .

[20]  Christoph H. Loch,et al.  Selectionism and Learning in Projects with Complexity and Unforeseeable Uncertainty , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[21]  Gregory Howell,et al.  The Underlying Theory of Project Management Is Obsolete , 2008, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[22]  William H. Glick,et al.  The Selective Perception of Managers Revisited , 1997 .

[23]  Lev Virine,et al.  Project Decisions: The Art and Science , 2007 .

[24]  Richard Margoluis,et al.  Measures of Success: Designing, Managing, and Monitoring Conservation and Development Projects , 1998 .

[25]  F. Harrison,et al.  Advanced project management , 1980 .

[26]  Julien Pollack,et al.  The changing paradigms of project management , 2007 .

[27]  Jack R. Meredith,et al.  Project Management: A Managerial Approach , 1989 .