Research on the evolutionary mechanism of NPD project complexity based on the CAS theory

Based on defining the concept of New Product Development project complexity, this paper identifies the three main factors of the New Product Development project complexity: product complexity, environment complexity, process complexity composed of strategic complexity, organizational complexity and technological complexity. From the perspective of complex adaptive system theory, the paper proposes that the evolutionary driver of project complexity comes from the interactions of different complexity factors, and then shows different evolutionary paths of the five complexity factors. After that, the paper divides the whole evolutionary process of complexity into three stages, which are the stage of external triggering, diverging and choosing, internal response. Finally the interrelationships of different complexity factors are described deeply in order to reveal the inner evolutionary mechanism of New Product Development project complexity.