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Home » The Productivity Key » 4D. Manage Complexity
- 4D1. Complexity makes it more difficult to accomplish goals and produce deliverables.
- 4D1i. Complexity contributes to suboptimization.
- 4D2. Complexity increases as:
- 4D2i. The scope of a goal or deliverable increases.
- 4D2ii. More functions or features are added to the scope of a deliverable.
- 4D2iii. The number of interfaces increases.
- 4D2iiia. Interfaces can include: relationship interfaces, the interfaces between different parts or components of a product, interfaces in a process, etc.
- 4D2iv. The number of stakeholders increases.
- 4D2v. The number of teams an individual participates in increases.
- 4D2vi. The number of unknowns increases.
- 4D3. MM 2.0 rules for minimizing complexity:
- 4D3i. Minimize complexity by simplifying and thus making things more manageable.
- 4D3ii. Break down large, more complex goals/deliverables into smaller, more manageable chunks of work.
- 4D3iia. Break goals down into subgoals and then into deliverables.
- 4D3iib. Break large deliverables down into interim deliverables.
- 4D3iii. Break down vector initiatives into programs and then into projects (with specific deliverables to be produced).
- 4D3iv. Keep team size to a minimum. The more interfaces an individual has to manage, the more complexity is added to producing the deliverable or achieving the goal.
- 4D3v. Break down project scope into manageable stages, each of which is achievable using as small a group of people as possible.
- 4D3vi. Use stakeholder reps to represent groups of stakeholders when there are more than twice the number of stakeholders than team members.
- 4D3vii. Create clear priorities.
- 4D3viii. Break the effort down into stages with fewer unknowns in each stage when there are lots of unknowns.
