In the context of project management, how is "complexity" understood?

In project management, "complexity" is understood primarily as a measure of the difficulty of integration between processes. This perspective highlights how various project elements—such as tasks, resources, teams, and technologies—interact and rely on each other. As projects grow in scope and involve multiple interdependent components, the complexity increases, making it challenging to manage these interactions effectively.

Complexity can manifest in various ways, including the number of stakeholders involved, the variety of tasks to complete, and the need for coordination across different teams. Understanding complexity helps project managers to anticipate challenges, identify potential bottlenecks, and allocate resources efficiently to ensure successful project outcomes.

While the number of resources, the level of project risk, and project timelines can contribute to a project's overall complexity, they are not definitive measures of complexity themselves. Instead, they are factors that might affect or compound the integration challenges within the project. Thus, focusing on the difficulty of integration between processes offers a clearer lens through which to assess and manage project complexity.