Managing Dynamic Environments ADDITION Effectively managing complex information technology projects is predominantly an exercise in precision and planning, but the best project managers know that adaptability is often the best way to mitigate the risk factors posed by dynamic environments. Adhering to a company's most recently issued mission statement is often the primary priority of top managers and executives, and with the fluid nature of modern organizational structures, outdated or obsolete projects reflecting prior mission statements may still be on the company's proverbial books. In this instance, competent managers are expected to identify projects which do not reflect the company's current mission statement, either adapting them to ensure compliance across all project parameters, or terminating the project's progress in an effective and efficient fashion. A recent article published by the prestigious International Journal of Project Management focused its analysis on the role that dynamic environments, which are typified by a continual process of minor system changes and the fluid interplay of resources, in order to determine the optimal strategy for project managers.

Researcher Simon Collyer, of the University of Brisbane Business School, authored the report Project Management Approaches for Dynamic Environments in 2009, with a stated objective to examine the nature of projects carried out in quickly changing settings (Collyer, 2009). According...

This innovative approach to the unending stream of stakeholder input, risk management contingencies, executive decrees, and other changes which are inherent to the project management process ultimately proposes a set of informative guidelines under the headings Planning, Experimentation, Lifecycle, Controls, Culture, Communication, and Leadership. Each of these unique leadership styles is then subjected to rigorous analysis to determine the advantages and disadvantages afforded to managers, with a series of relevant examples used for the sake of emphasis. This surprisingly simple method of communicating often intricate managerial techniques proves to be extremely effective, as Collyer references contemporary research seamlessly while providing tangible examples gleaned from anecdotal evidence.
One of the article's most intriguing observations holds that in any dynamic setting, it is useful for managers to separate the project into various stages, beginning with the most limited scope possible and expanding outwards, as this segmentation technique alleviates the detrimental impacts of environmental fluidity (Collyer, 2009). The article explicitly advises project managers to…