Ithuta JV

Source - Article by Bob Andrew

The famous philosopher of science, Karl Popper, believed that we live in a universe of clocks and clouds. Clocks are predictable and unchanging, but clouds change all the time in a complex manner, with their existence and formation at any particular time being uncertain and unpredictable. In our personal life, and in the work we do, the predictability of time and the uncertainty of our clouds must be in harmonious balance.

Project management also has its clocks and clouds and they need to be balanced for successful outcomes. Project scheduling, the computerised calculated activity dates and logic, could be said to be part of the clock, with planning, an experience-based group process often dictated by communication, social behaviour and networks, being part of the cloud. Planning, which must precede scheduling, and scheduling are allied disciplines but are different, and their different clock and cloud characteristics must be balanced.

Simple projects, which have a greater relative clock component than complex projects, might be able to be managed by reliance on time management alone. In complex projects, which have a large cloud component, there are many consequential possibilities, related to uncertainty and unpredictability, for them to be managed purely by time management. Consequences of possible changes on scheduled activities, as well as their effect on other intervening events, need to be assessed and managed relative a changing time frame.

The clock and cloud characteristics of a project imply that projects are not all the same, with these differences related to the size of the project (value), the degree of technical difficulty (complicatedness), the degree of uncertainty involved in defining objectives and the complexity of the relationships surrounding the project.

Irrespective of how competently managed the clock parts of a project are, the outcome of a complex project is always uncertain. The key to blending the clock and cloud components of these types of projects is effective risk management. The risk management process should include a competent prediction and appraisal of possible risks that might disrupt or delay the progress of the work. It should also include a practical achievable strategy for dealing with possible intervening events during the design, procurement and construction processes.

The overall objective of the risk management process is to recognise that each project is unique with different clock and cloud characteristics.