the development team or as an independent auditor as part of an audit. Businesses sometimes use formal systems development processes. This help assure systems are developed successfully. A formal process is more effective in creating strong controls, and auditors should review this process to confirm that it is well designed and is followed in practice. A good formal systems development plan outlines: A strategy to align development with the organization's broader objectives Standards for new systems Project management policies for timing and budgeting Procedures describing the process Evaluation of quality of change Characteristics of projects There are five important characteristics of a project: (i) It should always have specific start and end dates. (ii) They are performed and completed by a group of people. (iii) The output is the delivery of a unique product or service. (iv) They are temporary in nature. (v) It is progressively elaborated. Examples are: designing a new car or writing a book. Project complexity Complexity and its nature play an important role in the area of project management. Despite having a number of debates on this subject matter, studies suggest a lack of definition and reasonable understanding of complexity in relation to the management of complex projects. Project complexity is the property of a project which makes it difficult to understand, foresee, and keep under control its overall behavior, even when given reasonably complete information about the project system. The identification of complex projects is specifically important to multi-project engineering environments. As it is considered that project complexity and project performance are closely related, it is important to define and measure the complexity of the project for project management to be effective. Complexity can be: Structural complexity (also known as detail complexity, or complicatedness), i.e. consisting of many varied interrelated parts. It is typically expressed in terms of size, variety, and interdependence of project components, and described by technological and organizational factors. Dynamic complexity refers to phenomena, characteristics, and manifestations such as ambiguity, uncertainty, propagation, emergence, and chaos. Based on the Cynefin framework, complex projects can be classified as: Simple (or clear, obvious, known) projects, systems, or contexts. These are characterized by known knowns, stability, and clear cause-and-effect relationships. They can be solved with standard operating procedures and best practices. Complicated: characterized by known unknowns. A complicated system is the sum of its parts. In principle, it can be deconstructed into smaller simpler components. While