Working Group B: What principles are important in dealing with complexity?

[ian mack]

#12997

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Thanks for the summary paper from 2014. It encompasses a lot of the critical aspects, but in very general terms. Still, it makes a good introductory paper for those unfamiliar with complex projects. – Ian

[ian mack]

#12996

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Thanks Steven. I support your comments. I would suggest that “stakeholders” can indeed encompass senior governance levels? It was a useful survey indeed – Ian

[Davin Shellshear]

#12993

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Hi Team

I thought you may find the attached white paper of interest

Cheers

Davin Shellshear

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[Stephen Grey]

#12982

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USING THE INITIAL SURVEY RESULTS

I don’t want to seed fixed ideas into the discussion but here are a few thoughts on the survey results.

1. I encourage everyone to look at the results, perhaps find a response you made in the appendix to the most recent notes and look at where your responses fall within the overall set of results.
2. While the weight of responses is towards matters concerning human interactions, there are a few in the technical, planning and design space.
3. Governance doesn’t rate much of a mention on its own but there a few that look like a mix of governance and stakeholder management.
4. It is interesting that while concern for data systems was not absent from the responses, it was not strongly rated in its own right, contrary to a common knee jerk response to complexity – measure and monitor more rigorously.
5. Thinking about the interface between this group and WGA, my initial thought is that support for teamwork, stakeholder relations and similar matters is perhaps a more important objective for tools seeking to support the management of complex projects than the Big Data style of systems. Visualisation and communication of complicated factors and relationships might be a point where synergy will arise.
6. The sliders show a strong interest in flexible governance and management but no clear lead on how to improve the way we manage challenging projects, whether to buy or build people who can deal with complexity.

With more inputs it might be possible to gain insights into some of the outliers.

Any thoughts on the survey exercise and process will be most welcome as well.

 

[Davin Shellshear]

#12981

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Thank you Stephen

The new results are much closer to where I expected them. I had answered right in the stakeholder corner and was confused why it didn’t show. All explained.

I value you honesty and integrity.

Thank you

Cheers

Davin

[Stephen Grey]

#12979

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Apologies once again for the messed up algebra affecting the initial results. I have redone the calculations and confirmed them by several means so I am now confident that the latest plots, in the attached document, are sound. This is more like they should have been from the start.

I probably couldn’t have done it if I tried but the mistake seems to have rotated the plots sixty degrees. Now that is fixed, the results seem a lot more plausible.

Team and stakeholder management is in fact the main focus, as I thought it would be. It is interesting to note that there are some outliers. These can be instructive – to see what makes something out of the ordinary, which can provide insights into the factors at work.

This cockup highlights the value of using a properly designed tool instead of hacking your own together. The Survey Monkey part was easy enough but the data analysis and display was not.

I am setting up the same design as this survey in a demo version of Cognitive Edge SenseMaker to show how it could be done. The demo version has a limit of 20 responses so if we wanted to go further with this I think we’d be looking at a basic SenseMaker licence.

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[Stephen Grey]

#12977

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I am adding the latest survey results to the summary and I have spotted an error in the maths I used to turn the ternary co-ordinates into X-Y co-ordinates. I lifted it from something I did a couple of years ago and missed a point.

I am sorry about this. It doesn’t change the slider graphs or the primary data, just the way I have plotted it.

I’m alternating between kicking myself in the backside and reworking it. Should have the corrected charts out late today or over the weekend.

We have a total of twenty responses now although one did not use the ternary plots or the sliders, so it’s nineteen effective inputs.

[Davin Shellshear]

#12931

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Hi Team

The latest Connect Issue 41: September 2021 includes the report from our working groups

Cheers

Davin

[Davin Shellshear]

#12890

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Hi Group B

Attached are the transcripts of meeting 9.

Happy reading

Cheers

Davin Shellshear

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[Stephen Grey]

#12882

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If we confine it to the Fellows, as opposed to the wider ICCPM membership, I think it can go as is

Someone seems to have unblocked the forum

It was taking a day for some of my posts to appear

[Stephen Grey]

#12880

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Survey update including an overnight submission

I might have already posted it but the forum seems to take a day to show a new post and I can’t tell if I did or not

Please note that the triad signifier is a core element of the Cognitive Edge SenseMaker design, mocked up in Survey Monkey to test the idea of the survey

Moves are afoot to explore the possibility of implementing it in SenseMaker so we can cast a wider net after offering it to the ICCPM Fellows as a trial run

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[Davin Shellshear]

#12879

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Stephen

Did you wish to change anything about the introduction to the SurveyMonkey questionnaire, or can it be issued to the ICCPM Fellows as is?

Davin

[Stephen Grey]

#12825

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Some suggested edits

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[Stephen Grey]

#12824

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Davin

I have tweaked the text a little, removing the direct references to complexity apart from the initial prompt and the final slider’s end points

The URL is the same https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WGB_V2

Do you want a paragraph to introduce it to participants or will the text in the survey be sufficient?

I’m exploring the possibility of using my demo license for SenseMaker to run a pilot

Steve

[Davin Shellshear]

#12822

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Hi Stephen,

When you have done the final tweaks to the survey questions, please post the final survey and I will ask ICCPM to distribute to all SIG members as our first test run. We should be able to email to each SIG member.

It will be interesting to see what comes back.

We can ask for any suggestions from the SIG members to further improve the survey from their experience of completing it.

Cheers

Davin

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