carat complexity is a heuristic technique for solving complex software engineering and project management problems; the term carat complexity is a heuristic phrase referring to the sequential simplification of complexity by partitioning it topologically into facets or carats; it serves as a metric of the complexity as defined of facets after the simplification has been applied in project management the metric scale applies to the partitioning of project development activity into life cycle phases of stages; at each stage the objective of the process and roles of participants change in seemingly complex ways; carat complexity partition the roles and objective into facets of project deliverables; carat complexity is for use primarily in business, management consulting and marketing