Thought Leadership and Publications

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Our Thought Leadership Initiative is an integral part of our vision and mission, intended to examine the nature of complexity in projects and facilitate the adoption of new and emerging knowledge and practice by individuals and organisations. In particular it aims to advance both the knowledge and practice of complex project management and accelerate capability to manage complex projects.

Physical copies of each report are priced at $20.00 plus GST plus shipping. Digital copies of the reports are accessible for free to ICCPM Members. If you would like to learn more about ICCPM Membership, please click here. » If you would like to purchase physical or digital copies of the reports either individually or as a bundle, please contact us. »

2022-23 Roundtable – Data Analytics for Informed Decision-Making in Complex Projects

Harnessing Emergence in Complex Projects

2020 Roundtable – Harnessing Emergence in Complex Projects: Risk, Uncertainty and Opportunity

2018 Roundtable – Project Leadership: The game changer in large scale complex projects

2016 Roundtable – Contracting for Success in Complex Projects
A Report on the Future of Contracting in Complex Projects

2012 Roundtable – Hitting a Moving Target
Complex Project and Programme Delivery in an Uncertain World

2011 – Complex Project Management and Strategic Agenda to 2025
The Taskforce Report

2009 Roundtable – The Conspiracy of Optimism: Why Mega Projects Fail

Special Interest Group reports

ICCPM Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are dedicated to discussing and learning more about a variety of topics in complex project management. They provide a conducive environment for ICCPM Members to come together virtually to share their expertise and experiences, and learn from one another. SIGs are also dedicated to contributing to the growing body of knowledge in complex project management.

The Managing Risk in Complexity Special Interest Group (MRC SIG)  is a forum for open conversations and collaborative exploration into managing risk and uncertainty in complex project environments. The MRC SIG aims to identify and to develop improved risk management insights, tools, and methods of value to project owners and managers. In addition to four formal SIG meetings each year, there will be ongoing opportunities for ad-hoc meetings and collaboration on topics of interest to members.

If you are interested in joining an ICCPM Special Interest Group, please contact us » to submit an application.

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Meaningful communications are well known to be difficult at the best of times. They become more challenging when new languages or even words are employed by one party. Age differences, occupations with special languages, jargon and hybrid versions of these can create misinterpretations. And explanations of complex situations add another layer of challenge to communications effectiveness.

A Working Group of complex project practitioners under the auspices of ICCPM has explored the subject of cross-discipline engagement by pursuing the following question:

“To better enable risk management of complex projects, what considerations should be addressed to reduce the challenges of cross discipline engagement?”

The MRC SIG working group of volunteers explored the subject of defining the elements that should be considered when establishing the initial target for, and final assessment of, project success. The report makes a case for the definition of success in complex projects to include more than the cost of delivering a desired capability against a planned schedule when the project receives formal approval.

Complex projects are always by their nature exceptionally busy, as are all the members of the execution team. Amidst the normally high level of ‘noise’ in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) globally interconnected world of business now and in the future, it is often difficult to sense the early and weak signals that indicate the initiation of transition processes that can be detrimental to project delivery. Interestingly, many of the major issues that have detrimentally affected project success are problems that went unnoticed, were underestimated or dismissed until a significant change became obvious which triggered a project crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to capture a set of what is considered to be important considerations for those navigating complex projects, as developed based on experience, observation and various source documents employed in the past by members of a small Working Group of the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM).

It should be noted that the Working Group included the involvement of the following people on at least an occasional basis: Richard Barber, Laurie Bowman, Reaiche Carmen, Julia Cianci, Greg Fackender, Alistair Godbold, Tony Graham, Stephen Grey, Michael Hawkins, Daniela Kellett, Rob McMartin, Ian Mack, Denis Mitchell, Andrew Pyke, David Preller, Davin Shellshear, Lizzy Smith and Simon Springate. Furthermore, not all aspects of the content of this paper are necessarily endorsed by the participants of the Working Group.

e-BOOKS

ICCPM’s eBook series is centered around Complex Project Management tools and methodologies. These eBooks are written by leaders in their field. This series is available to purchase through all Amazon domains.

If you are interested in contributing to the ICCPM eBook series, and have your book published with ICCPM, please contact us » to submit a proposal or for more information.