Conceptualising uncertainty in safety-critical projects: A practitioner perspective

Conceptualising Project Uncertainty in the Context of Building Refurbishment Safety: A Systematic Review

Project uncertainty is an inherent attribute in safety-critical projects, such as building refurbishment. While it has been suggested that project safety performance is often challenged due to project uncertainty, uncertainties are yet to be conceptualised in building refurbishment projects. The purpose of this research is to propose an industry-specific factor model of project uncertainty that can be used to diagnose and assess uncertainty in construction refurbishment research and practice. An extensive review of existing literature, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, where 53 articles were selected to identify the determinants of project uncertainty and strategies for managing uncertainty. In total, 23 project uncertainty factors were identified and clustered under the taxonomy of uncertain information, uncertain complexity, uncertain temporal clarity, and uncertain understanding. Thus, 12 management strategies for coping with uncertainty in building refurbishment projects were determined. Learning and a flexible working environment were the most frequently raised strategies among all the reviewed articles. The factor model proposed enables project managers and academics to better understand, assess and manage project uncertainty and deliver safer building refurbishment projects. As such, it also provides a sufficient platform and initiates debate towards the development of uncertainty management strategies to better prepare for surprises as projects progress.

Living with the Unknown Unknown: Uncertainty in Projects

In this article, I explore how the traditional understanding of uncertainty in project management can be revised in light of the philosophical input from Kierkegaard, Dewey, and Wittgenstein. Planning models of projects tend to view uncertainty as a threat to successful project implementation. An alternative approach can emerge from a philosophical investigation of the potentials embedded in surprising turns of events. It is possible to retain a planning orientation to projects while also embracing uncertainty as a potentially energizing dimension of projects—one that can activate positive personal and collective drama in project management.

Toward High Reliability Project Organizing in Safety-Critical Projects

High reliability organizations claim to be special organizations that have consistently demonstrated safe performance in operating environments, which are simultaneously of high technical complexity, high consequence, and high tempo. This article argues that the literature on high reliability organizing, which emerged through studying day-to-day operations in the nuclear industry, air traffic control industry, and U.S. navy aircraft carriers, might hold important lessons for how the project management community can approach the management of safety-critical projects–projects in which safety is of paramount importance. Its aim is to consider how high reliability organizing might be realized in these safety-critical projects.