Complexity and Escalation
The BT Centre for Major Programme Management is delighted to welcome a range of distinguished speakers from academia and practice to deliver the first seminar series of this new Centre.
The theme of “Complexity and Escalation” emerged from the titles that were offered by the seminar speakers. Complexity appears in many ways within major programmes, including managing many stakeholders, coping with technically challenging projects, balancing many interactions and dependencies, or delivering within a fast-moving and uncertain political and economic environment. Given the uncertainty of information, decisions about whether to proceed or halt a project can become very difficult. Escalating a decision about the prospects for a project can introduce more biases and uncertainties, which can make it difficult for project managers to separate rationality and personality.
We thank all our speakers for contributing to this seminar series, and hope that this website will encourage further exploration of their work.
We thank the audiences who have participated in and contributed to discussions with the speakers.
Dr Janet Smart
- 16/10/2008: Tim Banfield, Director, National Audit Office
Complexity in projects
- 23/10/2008: Patrick Mayfield, Founder, PearceMayfield.com
UK government guidance on programme management: its genesis and content
- 30/10/2008: Graham Winch, Manchester Business School
Towards a theory of escalation of major projects
- 06/11/2008: David Lowe, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Manchester
The commercial management of projects: modelling and decision support
- 13/11/2008: Helga Drummond, Management School, University of Liverpool
Beyond escalation
- 20/11/2008: Peter Morris, University College, London
If the discipline of managing projects has evolved with so little help from research, what should its contribution be now, and is this realisable?
- 27/11/2008: David van Oss,PRTM
Complex programme management: When your rivals become your new best friends
- 04/12/2008: Harvey Maylor, Cranfield University
Stepping back from chaos: towards active complexity management