Balancing Hedging and Flexing for Inclusive Project Management

Current project management often emphasizes hedging through a strictly phased and funneled development of the project scope. However, an increasingly engaged project environment and rise in the complexity of societal challenges cause an emerging demand for more open and interactive ways of managing projects. This requires projects to adopt an integrated management approach that focuses on flexing, which emphasizes the ability of a project to adapt to and co-create with the environment. Overemphasizing flexing, however, may undermine the controlled nature of project management. Therefore, it is necessary to find a form of project management that is both open and interactive without losing control. On the basis of specific project contexts and characteristics, this chapter presents criteria and tools for balancing hedging and flexing for inclusive project management.