Understanding Project Stakeholders Management as a Key Driver for Managing Complexity Within Mega-projects

While the existing research has mainly investigated a project manage-ment’s static view, this contribution aims at discussing the impacts of projects’ struc-ture and dynamics on their performances, with a specific focus on the influence of stakeholder management within mega projects. The chapter starts with the discusses a project as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS). In the second part, it analyzes stakeholder management as a key driver for managing complexity within mega projects. The proposed model integrates several previously developed tested project structures, adding a separate, even if complemen-tary, structure for the negotiation process. Simulations describe the behaviors gener-ated by the interaction of customized development processes in single-phase projects. Project performances are measured with common variables such as time, quality and cost. Originality/value – This research aims at showing how human behavior through stakeholder management is a key factor for the management of complexity within mega projects. With the aim of including the dynamic dimension, the extension of the models used to managing stakeholders within projects requires, for researchers and practitioners, a change of perspective and interpretation, especially regarding the mega projects. Methodology-The system dynamics methodology provides some of the tools for developing and implementing such a wider extension in project models.