Project complexity and systems integration: Constructing the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games

•Managing projects•Managing programmes•Managing organization•Engineering and construction

Our study of the London Olympics 2012 construction programme showed that systems integration is one of the major challenges involved in delivery of a complex – “system of systems” or array – project. Organizations cope with complexity by decomposing a project into different levels of systems integration with clearly-defined interfaces and buffers between levels and individual component subsystems. At the “meta systems integration” level, an organization has to be established with the capabilities to understand the total system of systems, manage external interfaces with the multiple stakeholder sand coordinate the integration of its component parts. At the “system integration” level, efforts are made to manage each individual system as a loosely-coupled, relatively self-contained subsystem with defined interfaces to coordinate interdependencies with other parts of overall array. Establishing processes to maintain stability whilst responding dynamically to uncertain and changing conditions is one of the most challenging aspects of systems integration.