Engineering Project Complexity Factors from 132 Professional Surveys

A qualitative study identifies factors characterizing complexity in engineering projects based on the perception of 132 project management professionals. Data was captured using the word evocation technique and analyzed with the Vèrges technique, supported by Social Representation and Complexity Theory. The research was authored by Alessandro Prudêncio Lukosevicius and is available via Open Access.

Use Cases

• Modeling project complexity based on identified factors like stakeholders, risk, and technology.
• Training classifiers to categorize project difficulty based on descriptive features like scope and duration.
• Analyzing stakeholder management's role as a primary driver of project complexity.
• Developing project assessment frameworks using the core concepts of multidisciplinary and scale.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a survey of 132 engineering project management professionals.
• Analysis is grounded in established Social Representation Theory and Complexity Theory.
• The study proposes a definition for a complex project based on empirical qualitative data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect bias inherent to the specific survey methodology and respondent pool.

Provenance

Source

Alessandro Prudêncio Lukosevicius

Collection Method

Survey data captured via word evocation technique from 132 respondents.