Project Management at the Edge of Chaos: Social Techniques for Complex Systems

Complexity is a gift that can be made available for the successful implementation of projects, and used to create a new order or to change an existing one. Based on scientific facts, the authors present a systematic approach, which integrates complexity and its multitude of facets and gives practical recommendations for dealing with complexity in projects. The methods paradigm in project management is currently undergoing a massive upheaval. Projects are complex entities that cannot be tackled using traditional methods, such as classical cause and effect approaches. Complexity, and the associated phenomenon of self-organization, is a natural, but hidden designer. It offers a great opportunity in its use as a key driver for the implementation of projects. This requires identification of the principles of complexity and then using these for project management. In this book, the latest findings from natural sciences and brain research are used and transferred within a practice-oriented framework. The authors describe the methods of complexity regulation in projects and how self-organization for the management of projects can be applied.

Dr. Alfred Oswald (IFST - Institute for Social Technologies GmbH, 52223 Stolberg, Germany) earned his doctorate in Theoretical Physics at the RWTH Aachen University. He is Managing Director of the IFST-Institute for Social Technologies GmbH consulting institute, responsible for project management, transformation and innovation management. He is head of the special interest group for Agile Management of the GPM (German Association for Project Management e.V.). His field of work is the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations through innovative social technologies. He has many years of experience in the management of innovative and complex projects, as well as in the transformation of project-oriented organizations into high-performance organizations.

Dr. Jens Köhler (BASF SE, 67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany) received his Diploma in Physics from Bonn University and already began tackling the subject of complexity in his doctorate. He focuses on the digitalization in research and development. His specialty is the regulation of social complexity to lever the efficiency and effectiveness of project teams, being inevitable for successfully forming the digital transformation.

Roland Schmitt (69469 Weinheim, Germany) first gained experience in managing business and software development processes after his studies in Electrical Engineering. For more than ten years he has managed IT projects in the logistic and transport sector at DB Systel GmbH in Frankfurt am Main. His postgraduate management studies at the University of Portsmouth in the UK focused his attention on the psycho-social aspects of cooperation between people. Since then, his research interest has been the transfer of theoretical findings of self-organization and neuro-leadership into professional management practice.