Building up a project complexity framework using an international Delphi study

Abstract: Project management has spread around the world to become what it is today, that is to say a set of theories, principles, methodologies and practices. Past research works argue for a paradigm shift so that one could focus more on project complexity to manage projects more efficiently. However, there is a lack of consensus on what project complexity is, which makes it difficult to understand it clearly. Therefore, this article reviews the literature in order to build a standardised project complexity framework. Then, it describes how a Delphi study was conducted over a panel of academic and industrial experts to refine it. Further on, it draws some conclusions regarding project complexity factors perception, depending on some characteristics of the experts (academic/industrial experts, gender study). Finally, after a correlation study based on the Spearman rank, some perspectives are given to illustrate the applications of the project complexity framework which is built.