Adaptive project management: a tool for more realistic municipal planning?

Abstract

Municipal developmental projects are typically embedded in complex, dynamic environments involving many unpredictable components with diverse stakeholders and are characterised by a high degree of uncertainty. Most projects fail - largely because conventional project management methodology cannot adequately adjust to a dynamic environment. In a rapidly changing environment a highly adaptive model for planning and managing projects is required. Managing projects under conditions of complexity and uncertainty challenges the project team to be creative and adaptive. This requires a shift in thinking about projects and how they should be organised and delivered. Also known as �agile� Project Management, Adaptive Project Management (APM) is an approach to projects for which traditional methods are inappropriate. The fundamental concept underlying APM is that scope is variable, and that continuous customer input is key to success. It is the purpose of this article to explore the potential contributions of APM as a more effective and realistic tool for project planning and execution in a turbulent municipal planning context.