Simulation in Project and Program Management: Utilization, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Nowadays the program complexity increases and program manager needs to have specialized skills and knowledge as he faces the most challenging tasks in his job for making sure that all projects and program component are moving as per the plan. Thus, program management education plays a critical role in supporting and enhancing the skill and competencies needed for program manager so the training has to follow innovative way to overcome the limitation the traditional courses deliver. Introduction of simulations in project management has since helped in the exploration of opportunities, expect scenarios and identify limitations of several factors within the project at hand however the initial search shows the lack of dedicated and well-known simulation software for program management compared to many simulation tools for project management training. This research paper seeks to explore and study the usage of simulation tools in program management and study if Program Management can benefit from available Project Management simulation as well as how current can be enhanced for that and do we need separated software or better to enhance current software. For that, observation has to be done to explore that and come up with appropriate recommendations and suggestions. This will include defining the simulation tools in general , its objectives, pros & cons, challenges & opportunities, sample of project management simulation then followed by research methods including survey, questionnaires for interviewees and output from what we studied so method depends on qualitative data due to lack of secondary data. This will be built up to get understanding on program manager requirement for simulation as possible.