Financial institutions have no choice but to innovate and innovate quickly. As the financial services industry continues to evolve through new customer behaviors and the emergence of disruptive FinTech services, established financial institutions are forced to launch complex and ambitious change projects to keep pace with an ever-changing landscape. A digital transformation of the front to back customer experience, the introduction of a complex testing program impacting multiple systems, or a new regulation that requires legal entity restructuring are just a few examples of initiatives that must follow the trajectory of evolving consumer trends if they are to prove successful. These projects can appear overwhelming given the seemingly endless intricacies and roadblocks involved but organizations must learn to thrive under these challenging circumstances.

An understanding of the complexity and how to navigate its many facets can determine project successes and failures. To set a project up for success, one must clearly identify and leverage the tools at their disposal to ensure project goals can be achieved. It is during this Initiation phase that the project stands the best chance of cutting through the various complexities that await throughout the project lifecycle.

Most Defining Characteristics of Complexity

Simply put, complexity refers to features that make projects challenging. As these begin to accumulate and become interconnected, projects become increasingly complex. The two most defining characteristics of complex projects, as seen in Figure 1 below, are having multiple stakeholders aligned to your project and allowing ambiguity to permeate core components such as resourcing, requirements, and delivery planning.[i] Ambiguity, as it pertains to complex projects, concerns artifacts that can be understood in two or more possible ways. Such misunderstandings can be detrimental to the success of a project. Ambiguity is further amplified by an increased number of stakeholders. Ensuring a shared understanding of a project’s goals and key focus areas can be a challenge when dealing with multiple stakeholders. Therefore, close management of information flow among those stakeholders and transparency across all workstreams is integral to maintaining a consistent message and setting the project up for success. Having multiple project participants can also mean conflicting demands, which can lead to competing agendas. Political influences, unknown project features, and new technology, to name a few, can further complicate a project. It is thus vital for organizations to be well equipped to handle these defining characteristics of complexity from the outset.

Align Tangible Business Outcomes with an Active Project Sponsor

In the beginning of any project, organizational outcomes should be clearly defined and there should be a clear linkage between those outcomes and the strategy of the organization. Such clarification of context helps mitigate ambiguity. Naturally, not everything will be crystal clear, but project leaders should be comfortable with ambiguity and learn to tackle and define the unknown and ambiguity. In addition, it is imperative that the project sponsor is actively engaged at initiation in order to both champions project goals and facilitate buy-in among key project stakeholders.

Pinpoint the Right Project Methodology Through a Structured Approach

Even with clearly articulated and aligned outcomes, project initiation can be daunting given the degree of complexity. There should not be a “one size fits all” approach to project methodology selection and each project should be viewed as unique. Forcing projects into a single prescriptive framework can be costly. Frameworks should therefore be flexible and tailored to the bespoke needs of clients and remain oriented to delivering value and consistency. Look not only to meet project deliverables in a timely manner but also strive to reach those milestones with innovative and technologically focused ideas.

Since each client is unique, it is critical to analyze the context of the project at hand to determine the most suitable project methodology to adopt - Waterfall, Scaled Agile, or a hybrid model. As detailed in the spider diagram below, one should evaluate different complexity factors such as team size, domain complexity, technical complexity, compliance, organizational distribution, and geographic complexity. The further out on each leg you reach, the more complex the factor, which will help dictate a team’s way of working (WoW). This is a key Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) concept, which refers to how we work together as a team. The premise is that each team is unique and should have its own WoW in order to best adapt to changing circumstances. This becomes increasingly evident as projects scale.

Communicate Effectively with Project Stakeholders with Well Aligned Teams

Understanding and managing a diverse set of project stakeholders adds additional complexity. Poor communication among stakeholders can add ambiguity to a project by creating a misunderstanding around project goals and objectives and lead to misalignment among project artifacts. Strong communication and well-aligned teams are therefore especially crucial as it pertains to stakeholder management. Well-aligned teams are far more successful when it comes to addressing the unknown and the ambiguous. As with any well-aligned team, a project leader should aim to always be in sync with the preferred communication styles of their respective stakeholders, especially early on. They should also practice various modes of communication to successfully engage stakeholders in the way that works best for them. As team size and geographic distribution increase, effective communication methods become increasingly important, especially when looking to introduce and maintain clarity through all facets of the project. Furthermore, project managers can bolster stakeholder engagement and alignment through effective listening and by encouraging open two-way communications.[iii]

Bringing it all together for a Successful Project Initiation

How you initiate a project and navigate through complexity and ambiguity determines project success. The next time you launch a project, leverage a proven approach that works.

Align tangible business outcome alignment with an active project sponsor
Pinpoint the right project methodology through a structured approach
Communicate effectively with project stakeholders with well-aligned teams

About Monticello

Monticello Consulting Group is a management consulting firm supporting the financial services industry through deep knowledge and expertise in digital transformation, change management, and financial services advisory. Our understanding of the competitive forces reshaping business models in capital markets and digital banking are proven enablers that help our clients drive innovative change programs to be more competitive and gain market share in new and existing businesses.

Sources:

[i] PMI’s Pulse of the Profession In-Depth Report: Navigating Complexity

[ii] Ambler, Scott W., & Lines, Mark (2020). Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working

[iii] Abudi, G. (2013). Managing communications effectively and efficiently. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2013—North America, New Orleans, LA. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Get In Touch

LEARN MORE ABOUT MONTICELLO AND PURSUE OPPORTUNITIES WITH OUR TEAM