Abstract
In organizations dealing with complex and volatile environments, projects and programs are an important tool to structure and manage complex tasks within the organization. Especially when it comes to the need for continuous change to adapt to VUCA environments or to reach a competitive advantage, strategic programs are used by top management in large companies to structure and implement strategic priorities. While traditional approaches on program management focus mainly on technical tools, this article broadens the perspective to a more systemic view of program and project management. We disuses the SySt system principles as well as the Triangle of Belief Polarities (TBP) as two concepts that could help project and program managers as well as top managers to deal with projects and programs in VUCA situations.
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Notes
- 1.
Not only large technical projects, like for example the “Berlin Airport” or the railway station “Stuttgart 21” in Germany in the recent past have turned into disasters in terms of delays, budget overruns or quality problems (New Berlin Airport, 2013; Stuttgart 21, 2013). Also ever more internal change projects that are not as visible as the large construction projects, such as restructuring efforts or implementations of ERP systems, get stuck. Also ever more employees are getting bored of the repeating consulting projects, top-down-change or cost cutting initiatives and it is very difficult to motivate them to continuously change, which is, as described above, an essential factor of survival for companies today.
- 2.
PMBOK® by the Project Management Institute, the pm baseline oft he PMA/IPMA or the ISO Standard 21500:2012, Guidance on Project Management can be mentioned as important global standards. Although they come from different traditions and regions, a set of the same elements as similar roles, processes and tools can be identified across all standards.
- 3.
We will refer mainly on the PMI standard as an example hereafter. Although other standards deviate from PMI, the differences in content and meaning are small.
- 4.
Bhakti yoga emphasises love, mindfulness and confidence, Jnana yoga rather knowledge, and discretion as well as Karma yoga order, activeness and responsibility.
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Mack, O., Jungen, M. (2016). Program Management in VUCA Environments: Theoretical and Pragmatical Thoughts on a Systemic Management of Projects and Programs. In: Mack, O., Khare, A., Krämer, A., Burgartz, T. (eds) Managing in a VUCA World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16889-0_3
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