ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the potential usefulness of project management, not only to increase efficacy and efficiency, but also to face and solve the multilevel complexity that characterizes all projects. In fact, project management faces project complexity both rationally and relationally; while the rational approach is the most well-known and mature part of project management, the acknowledgment of the importance of relational approach is very recent. In general, key processes as development and management of stakeholder relations, management of stakeholder requirements and expectations, and stakeholder engagement—including teaming, can greatly support project success, and it may be useful, in order to identify properly the most efficacious actions, to assess the different levels of complexity that may characterize the diverse projects. For this purpose, an innovative categorization in operations—complicated projects—complex projects—emergencies—crisis, which derives from the application of Cynefin Framework to projects, is proposed, and relevant success factors are properly analyzed. Additional insights about complicated and complex projects are then made, in order to s2how that, while in complicated projects the success is due to the satisfaction of project/stakeholder requirements, in complex projects the success requires the satisfaction of both stakeholder requirements and expectations, and, then, managing properly the perceived business value becomes mandatory.
