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Towards the Development of a Complex Adaptive Project Environment Assessment Tool

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Information System Development

Abstract

Managing complex software and information systems (IS) development projects in a continuously changing business environment is an arduous task. We argue that the success of a complex project depends on the underlying capability of the specific project environment to be adaptive to changes. Organizations have therefore a need to assess the capability of the underlying project environment to identify how well it supports the management of a complex project. In this paper we present the design of an initial “complex adaptive project environment assessment” (CAPEA) tool, which has been developed based on the eight key characteristics of the complex adaptive systems (CAS): Autonomy, Interdependence, EcoSystem Structure, Context Awareness, Non-Linearity, Emergence, Self-Organization, and Adaptation. The evaluation of the CAPEA tool is conducted by assessing two project methods in order to provide an initial indicative proof of concept. The evaluation of the CAPEA tool indicates that it can assist organizations to assess and improve the management of complex software or IS project methods, and reduce costly consequences associated with failed projects.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Discipline of BIS, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Corina Raduescu

  2. School of Software, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Asif Qumer Gill

Authors
  1. Corina Raduescu
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  2. Asif Qumer Gill
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Corina Raduescu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Computer Languages and Systems, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    María José Escalona

  2. IWT2 Research Group FIDETIA, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Gustavo Aragón

  3. Monash University, Caaulfield East, Victoria, Australia

    Henry Linger

  4. National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Michael Lang

  5. National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Chris Barry

  6. City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

    Christoph Schneider

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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Raduescu, C., Gill, A.Q. (2014). Towards the Development of a Complex Adaptive Project Environment Assessment Tool. In: José Escalona, M., Aragón, G., Linger, H., Lang, M., Barry, C., Schneider, C. (eds) Information System Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07215-9_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07215-9_39

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07214-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07215-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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