Introduction

The author Cooke-Davies (2011), is of the opinion that different mindsets in an organization, from the management hierarchy to the systems engineer, and their ability to perceive an incident or a change within the organization behaviour makes or eases complexity of a project. Cooke-Davies mentions that the decision making feature acting within a project is heavily influenced by the perspective of every member involved within the project and their ability to take decisions related to the project. The following essay will thus focus on the fact that whether or not the individual perspective of people within a project viewing a change or decision making influences the complexity of a project.

Discussion

In a project, it is essential to make a decision in almost every phase and aspect of its progression. Decision making is a process that is subjected by making important decisions within a project. That decision can be characterized by any incident that is occurring within the project. It can also be influenced by changes happening within the project (Cooke-Davies, 2011).. A change can occur within an organization based on various factors. It can be either due to issues related to the project or can even be subjected by the budget and time constraints. Understanding of the issue and making a decision based on that can also be influenced by a person’s perspective about the issue. This perspective is influenced by a lot of different impacts and their implications.

The author mentions that this perspective differs from person to person depending on their hierarchy in the organization. It has been mentioned that if a person is in the managerial post, he or she might see an incident in a project differently than a systems engineer. However, it is also mentioned by the author that this decision making capability based on an incident do not reach a conclusion about a project, rather it helps in making the immediate solution of the incident that further helps in the smooth progression of the project. The decision taken in this regard, on the basis of an incident has the potential to increase or decrease the complexity of a project further (Cooke-Davies, 2011).. Thus, it is a very complex matter that whether the managerial levels and the systems engineers have the same perspective about an incident or not. If the managers perceive an incident and offer a decision against the change and that differs with the decision making of the people in the level of the systems engineers, then the complexity of the project would increase as a result.

Nevertheless, the difference of opinion exists within different individuals affecting the decision taken against an incident or a change situation. But if this persists, the complexity of the project will proportionately rise with the complexity making it almost impossible to reach the set goal for the project. The influence of time and capital plays a vital role in this regard. Thus, the author suggests that all the people involved within a project should amicably reach a solution regarding the decisions taken for an incident or a change within the project for achieving a solution and the set of artifacts. It is only possible for a project to progress smoothly if decision taken within a project for every situation is the accumulation of the different perspectives of all the hierarchical levels. Therefore, as per the suggestions of the author, decisions should be taken amicably if they cannot be solved analytically to reach a conclusion so that an acceptable solution is reached and set of appropriate artifacts are achieved. The managers are however regarded as the decision making bodies but it is not to be forgotten that the system engineers are able to provide a feasible solution regarding any change within the project from the aspect of technicalities.

Therefore, the author suggests that it is important that within the entire organization, there should be an ethicaldecision-making framework, that should be established in order to make sure that all the perspectives regarding an incident within the organization is taken care of and an amalgamation of all the suggestions regarding them are taken into account. Although, the author himself suggests a decision making framework that helps in making an amicable decision enabling the design definition and the delivery of the system solutions subsequent to the decisions maintaining their value (Cooke-Davies, 2011). It is however, an arguable fact if the same framework would work for every decision made within every possible project as the requirements of different projects are different from each other along with the project constraints and the value generation aspects of the project.

Thus, it can be easily put that every project has different perceptions in approach from different people and it does increase the level of complexity of a project if the decision taken against these approaches differ. It can be agreed that the nature of human understanding, perception and interaction is the major factor behind it. Therefore, reaching a solution for these issues is to be achieved only by mutual consent and a decision making framework established within the organization to reach a specific targeted solution.

Conclusion

Thus, from the above essay, it can be concluded that the changes in perspective do affect decision making probability within a project, which in turn increases or decreases the probability of a project for being complex. Since, a project manager may perceive a decision taken within a project differently than a systems engineer, it may increase the complexity of the project because of the difference in opinions. However, it is to be kept in mind that the increase in complexity within a project is capable of making increased use of time and money, which form very important aspects of a project. Therefore, as per the suggestions of the author, decisions should be taken amicably if they cannot be solved analytically to reach a conclusion so that an acceptable solution is reached and set of appropriate artefacts are achieved. Thus, as per the suggestions of the author, it is important that proper decision-making framework be established within a project to make sure that the decisions taken within the management organization help in reducing the complexity of a project.

References

1. Cooke-Davies, T. (2011, August). Aspects of complexity: Managing projects in a complex world. Project Management Institute.