Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
Introduction
The design of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been made in order to trap the sediment inflow. GERD is the 6,450 MW project which is completed thirty km upstream with Sudan (GERD, 2019). It is termed to be the largest project in Africa (IR, 2019). The objective of current task is to make an identification and discussion of the complexity level within the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD, 2019). The various characteristics in context to project complexity have been provided in the report. The similar characteristics are then required to be sum up in four different complexity types which includes structural, technical, directional or temporal. It makes an identification of most significant type of complexity in Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. At last, it initiates the scoreboard with the help of various complexity estimation tools for the purpose to estimate the complexity level of GERD project. It would mainly integrate the way to conduct the survey to assign different weights for each complexity factor that have been highlighted. The report would be followed by providing complexity characteristics in the selected project.
Project complexity characteristics
Project complexity is the way to measure the difficult level of executing the production process (Copper, 2019). The increased complexity in production process have various segments to be brought together in the operational network in order to formulate the work flow that is required to be completed (Dao, Kermanshachi, Shane & Anderson, 2016). The objective of current section is to highlight different characteristics of project complexity. In this, construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been taken into consideration. The various characteristics of complex project includes multiple stakeholders, sufficient project resources and phases, influence of authority members, usage of new technology, highly regulated environment and many more (San Cristóbal, Carral, Diaz, Fraguela & Iglesias, 2018). According to the characteristic of multiple stakeholders, it has been analysed that it clearly matches with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project. It is so because, the current project had various stakeholders which includes Common market for eastern and southern Africa as the regional coordinator, Eastern Africa Power pool as the sectoral organisation, Ethiopian electricity power cooperation as the lead national agency and Nile Basin Initiative as the Sectoral organisation. From the stated aspects, it could be stated that the multiple stakeholders may increase the complexity in project. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was contacted by the owner of Common Market for eastern and southern African organisation. From this, it could be highlighted that GERD project had the authorities to regulate the environment according to their demand while development of project. Along with the above stated characteristics, there were various other aspects such as poor planning and insufficient finance which may become the major reason for enhancing the project complexity. From all the aspects that have been provided, it could be evaluated that all the characteristics are appropriate in context to GERD project. The reason for the same aspect has been provided in the next section of report.
The explanation of above stated aspects has been clearly provided in the current section of report. The various reasons are provided to link the characteristics of project complexity in GERD project. From the aspects that have been provided, it has been indicated that the dam would impact the Ethiopians and other neighbours (downstream). The affected individuals are not at all provided with the meaningful opportunity to clearly critique project. The donor government was also not aware of the time when the project began suddenly. According to the irrigation and Egyptian minister of the water resources, it has been indicated that it is not just only about Sudan or Egypt. It is so because all the international rivers are mainly governed by various laws and different conventions. Thus, in accordance to the current aspect, there could be various actions that may affect the water quotas which thus require advanced notice against all the possible harms. Thus, the strict and inefficient challenges made the GERD project move towards increased complexities. It signifies that the current aspect matches with different characteristics of project complexity.
Complexity types
The project manager of the project has to determine the complexity of project to ensure effective decision-making and achievement of all the goals and objectives of project. The most significant fact to measure the complexity of project is not only accuracy but not consistency. In order to determine the project selection, there are four different types of complexities which include structural complexity, technical complexity, temporal complexity and directional complexity (Harrin, 2019). The objective is to sum up the characteristics in one of the different types of project complexities. In addition, it would also provide the way to make an identification of most significant type of project complexity in GERD. The below highlights all the four types of project complexities:
| Structural complexity | Technical complexity | Directional complexity | Temporal complexity |
| The current type of project complexity indicates the difficultly level in management of all the interconnected activities (San Cristóbal, Carral, Diaz, Fraguela & Iglesias, 2018). The various examples of such types of project includes construction, engineering and other defence projects. | The current type of project complexity indicates the various challenges in design of project and other technical detailed information. The technical complexity is highly associated with such projects which do not have enough detailed information.
| The current type of project complexity involves various set of challenges while determining various goals of project (San Cristóbal, Carral, Diaz, Fraguela & Iglesias, 2018).
| The temporal complexity indicates when there is uncertain environment. The various uncertain aspects include legislative changes and the other impacts of environment.
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From the above stated types of project complexities, it could be stated that the similar project characteristics are in the structural complexity. It is so because such type of complexity arises while management of all the interconnected activities. Such types of complexities arise in construction project. GERD project is also based on the construction industry. It has been indicated that the inefficient planning would highly impact the Ethiopians and all other downstream neighbours. In addition, there are various project complexity characteristics such as multiple stakeholders, ambiguity of resources, unknown project features and highly regulated environment. All the stated characteristics have higher connectivity with the GRED project and it could be indicated that it lies under structural type of project complexity.
According to the aspects related to GRED project, structural is considered to be the most significant type of project complexity. The structural complex project is considered to be highly complex when it makes an involvement of large number of stakeholders and other elements. In this type of project complexity, it sometimes become very difficult for project manager to handle and control all the aspects related to the project. As highlighted earlier, GRED project had various stakeholders such as COMESA, EAPP, EEPCo and NBI which thus, enhanced the chance of complexity in the current project.
Initiation of scorecard
The objective of current section is to provide the usage of the complexity estimation tool to estimate the complexity of GERD project. It would mainly involve the creation of survey in order to assign the weights to each complexity factor. In addition, it provides the discussion with all the interviewees along with the contact name. Below highlights some of the questions to be provided to 15 volunteers. All the questions that have been formulated are based on certain complexity factors which include multiple stakeholders, highly regulated environment and ambiguity of resources.
| Question1 | What is the reason for the formulation of GERD project? |
| Question2 | Do you think the executives and other team members of project tried to complete project in one go or in different phases? |
| Question3 | What would be an estimate budget for the completion of GERD project? |
| Question4 | Do you think the executives have earlier constructed any other project like GERD? |
| Question5 | What is the estimated time to complete the project? |
| Question6 | Do the executives of project have sufficient budget to complete the project? |
| Question7 | How many stakeholders are there in GERD project? |
| Question8 | Do you think the project would complete within desired budget and time? |
| Question9 | Do you think the project manager of GERD project would have faced any issue while the formulation of project? |
| Question10 | Do you think the multiple stakeholders would raise complexity in GERD project? |
In order to provide the analysis of all the results gathered using 15 different volunteers, it could be highlighted that 63% of the respondents signified that the project has been developed for producing 6,4000 of the electricity (Flamik, 2019). Also 74% of the respondents provided the fact that the executives of project are making usage of different phases for its completion. There are 29% respondents that believe that the company have not constructed any other project like GERD before. On the other hand, all other respondents believe that the company have constructed various other projects like GERD project. According to 64% of the respondents, they believe that GERD project had more than US $4.5 billion budget for project completion. In addition, 68% of the respondents highlighted that they found multiple stakeholders is the major reason which may raises the chance of risks in an organisation. Thus, from the overall analysis of the results that have been gathered, the report clearly highlights different aspects concerned with GERD project.
References
Copper. (2019). Project Management 101 – How to Profile Project Complexity – Copper Project Management Software. Retrieved 21 December 2019, from https://www.copperproject.com/2018/06/project-management-101-profile-project-complexity/
Dao, B., Kermanshachi, S., Shane, J., & Anderson, S. (2016). Project Complexity Assessment and Management Tool. Procedia Engineering, 145, 491-496. doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.026
Flamik. (2019). Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Causes Turbulence Within East Africa. Retrieved 21 December 2019, from https://www.americansecurityproject.org/grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam/
GERD. (2019). Ethiopia – Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) | International Hydropower Association. Retrieved 21 December 2019, from https://www.hydropower.org/case-studies/ethiopia-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam-gerd
GERD. (2019). Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Retrieved 21 December 2019, from https://www.au-pida.org/view-project/427/
Harrin, E. (2019). 3 Types of Complexity. Retrieved 21 December 2019, from https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/7405/3-Types-of-Complexity
- (2019). The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Fact Sheet. Retrieved 21 December 2019, from https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/the-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam-fact-sheet-8213
San Cristóbal, J., Carral, L., Diaz, E., Fraguela, J., & Iglesias, G. (2018). Complexity and Project Management: A General Overview. Complexity, 2018, 1-10. doi: 10.1155/2018/4891286