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Vicious circles of parallelism

Vicious circles of parallelism
Vicious circles of parallelism
Manufacturing development projects are frequently highly parallel and time-constrained. A study was undertaken of such a project as part of a delay and disruption (D&D) litigation to show the effects of delays and in-development product enhancements. The use of the cognitive-mapping technique revealed some key vicious circles, and in particular that increasing crossrelations between concurrent activities increases activity durations, which under time constraints causes activities to become more parallel and hence increases crossrelations. System dynamics was used to model these loops quantitatively, explaining the level of D&D experienced within the project, which was more than the sum of each individual causal effect as the effects compounded each other. A case study is used as a basis to analyse these effects, and discuss the wider implications for modelling projects for which project networks are the normal modelling medium, and possible ways in which the inadequacies of networks can be overcome.
system dynamics, delay and disruption, litigation
0263-7863
151-155
Williams, Terry
085e6e3e-f94e-435c-936e-82fb0c5c4ae8
Eden, Colin
db5ed969-1735-4ad2-8694-fafb5c06686b
Ackermann, Fran
de3bfd09-472a-44ee-9adb-d32b0c0b3291
Tait, Andrew
6a37f58e-15bc-428b-b54d-ab936b9bffa4
Williams, Terry
085e6e3e-f94e-435c-936e-82fb0c5c4ae8
Eden, Colin
db5ed969-1735-4ad2-8694-fafb5c06686b
Ackermann, Fran
de3bfd09-472a-44ee-9adb-d32b0c0b3291
Tait, Andrew
6a37f58e-15bc-428b-b54d-ab936b9bffa4

Williams, Terry, Eden, Colin, Ackermann, Fran and Tait, Andrew (1995) Vicious circles of parallelism. International Journal of Project Management, 0263-7863 (3), 151-155. (doi:10.1016/0263-7863(95)00034-N).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Manufacturing development projects are frequently highly parallel and time-constrained. A study was undertaken of such a project as part of a delay and disruption (D&D) litigation to show the effects of delays and in-development product enhancements. The use of the cognitive-mapping technique revealed some key vicious circles, and in particular that increasing crossrelations between concurrent activities increases activity durations, which under time constraints causes activities to become more parallel and hence increases crossrelations. System dynamics was used to model these loops quantitatively, explaining the level of D&D experienced within the project, which was more than the sum of each individual causal effect as the effects compounded each other. A case study is used as a basis to analyse these effects, and discuss the wider implications for modelling projects for which project networks are the normal modelling medium, and possible ways in which the inadequacies of networks can be overcome.

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Published date: 1995
Keywords: system dynamics, delay and disruption, litigation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 36879
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/36879
ISSN: 0263-7863
PURE UUID: bceaa5a4-9059-4cbc-98a9-0237c822225a

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Date deposited: 08 Mar 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:57

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Contributors

Author: Terry Williams
Author: Colin Eden
Author: Fran Ackermann
Author: Andrew Tait

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