Managing IT Projects in Dynamic Environments: Key Strategies

Introduction: Adaptability in IT Project Management

Effectively managing complex information technology projects is predominantly an exercise in precision and planning, but the best project managers know that adaptability is often the best way to mitigate the risk factors posed by dynamic environments. Adhering to a company's most recently issued mission statement is often the primary priority of top managers and executives, and with the fluid nature of modern organizational structures, outdated or obsolete projects reflecting prior mission statements may still be on the company's proverbial books. In this instance, competent managers are expected to identify projects that do not reflect the company's current mission statement, either adapting them to ensure compliance across all project parameters or terminating the project's progress in an effective and efficient fashion. A recent article published by the International Journal of Project Management focused its analysis on the role that dynamic environments — typified by a continual process of minor system changes and the fluid interplay of resources — play in determining the optimal strategy for project managers.

Researcher Simon Collyer, of the University of Brisbane Business School, authored the report Project Management Approaches for Dynamic Environments in 2009, with a stated objective to examine the nature of projects carried out in quickly changing settings (Collyer, 2009). According to Collyer, who conducted a comprehensive research review on the subject, "in the project management context dynamism is taken to be a dimension of a project that represents the extent to which a project is influenced by changes in the environment in which it is conducted" (2009).

Collyer's Research Framework for Dynamic Environments

This innovative approach to the unending stream of stakeholder input, risk management contingencies, executive decrees, and other changes inherent to the project management process ultimately proposes a set of informative guidelines under the headings Planning, Experimentation, Lifecycle, Controls, Culture, Communication, and Leadership. Each of these unique leadership dimensions is then subjected to rigorous analysis to determine the advantages and disadvantages afforded to managers, with a series of relevant examples used for emphasis. This straightforward method of communicating often intricate managerial techniques proves to be extremely effective, as Collyer references contemporary research seamlessly while providing tangible examples drawn from anecdotal evidence.

One of the article's most intriguing observations holds that in any dynamic setting, it is useful for managers to separate the project into various stages, beginning with the most limited scope possible and expanding outward. This segmentation technique alleviates the detrimental impacts of environmental fluidity (Collyer, 2009), and the article explicitly advises project managers to ensure strict scope controls through precise segmentation. The textbook used throughout this course also warns that "it is crucial for information technology project managers and their teams to work on improving user input and reducing incomplete and changing requirements and specifications … to avoid project failures" (Schwalbe, 2011), advice that aligns directly with Collyer's recommendations.

Segmentation as a Scope Control Strategy

When a multifaceted project is very likely to experience fundamental changes during the course of its completion, the concept of handling each component on a separate basis is especially appealing. When those inevitable changes eventually occur, they will be isolated to a single segment of the entire project rather than disrupting the whole. Project managers have long understood this on an instinctual and experiential level, but Collyer's research quantifies the intangible benefits of project segmentation, while demonstrating how this approach can be successfully integrated across an array of project types.