System dynamics in project management: A comparative analysis with traditional methods

Recent dramatic project failures have highlighted weaknesses in the traditional approaches to project management and in particular their failure to cope with strategic issues. System dynamics models provide a useful tool for a more systematic management of these strategic issues. There have been a number of applications of system dynamics in project management; this experience permits a tentative comparison with the more traditional approaches and to examine the particular benefits of system synamics. The conflicts of opinion between their supporters stress the different perspectives underlying the two approaches. The comparision of the approaches is focused on the ‘view’ of the project management process. Although, ultimately, they both assume a system perspective, identifying a cycle of planning, implementation and control, the level of detail in which they consider the project system is different. Traditional models support the project manager in the detailed operational problems within the process, while system dynamics models provide more strategic insights and understanding about the effectiveness of different managerial policies. The two approaches provide complementary support to project management; this suggests it could be of major value to integrate the best of both worlds.