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1. Introduction
An array of technological and socio-economic transformations is increasing the complexity of the business environment and the requirements in terms of managerial competencies (Vasconcellos and Ramirez, 2011). Organizations are today challenged to conceive, design and undertake projects characterized by complexity at structural, uncertainty, dynamics, pace and socio-political level (Baccarini, 1996; Bredillet, 2006, 2010; Geraldi et al., 2011; Ben Mahmoud-Jouini et al., 2016; Martinsuo et al., 2014; Huemann and Martinsuo, 2016; Padakar and Gopinath, 2016).
The growing number of involved stakeholders and management variables and the importance of intangible objectives (Verga Matos et al., 2019) demand purposeful approaches and techniques to successfully address project complexity (Saynisch, 2010; De Toni and De Zan, 2016; Braun and Hadwich, 2016; Bolzan de Rezende et al., 2018). Defining such complexity and exploring the elements that underlie the same are crucial for successful project management (PMI, 2014; Kiridena and Sense, 2016). Traditional project management tools can't anymore address the challenging requirements for mastering increased complexity (Saynisch, 2010). In situations of uncertainty, rational plan-oriented action is only practicable to a limited degree (Böhle et al., 2016) and improvisation for the “unforeseen” is required (Leybourne and Sadler-Smith, 2006; Davies et al., 2017). Traditional planning and control approaches are less effective for complex projects due to the way in which unstable systems change (Kopczyński and Brzozowski, 2015; Sheffield et al., 2012). More flexibility is thus needed (Kapsali, 2011).
During the last decade, scholars and practitioners have proposed new paradigms for managing complex projects (Williams, 1999) and new ways to deal with the structural and environmental complexity of projects by using methodologies, techniques and tools throughout the project lifecycle (Saynisch, 2010; Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). Moreover, the understanding of how project complexity might be managed is of significant importance for managers because this has an impact on decision-making and goal attainment related to complexity (Baccarini, 1996; De Rezende et al., 2018). Even if project management is a consolidated field of research, the study of project complexity and the broad analysis of such complexity is still uncovered (De Rezende et al., 2018), especially when complexity and dynamism influence the management and the outcome of a project (Butler et al., 2019). Of consequence, there...