Uncertainty, change management the application to risk & safety for infrastructure projects how it happens in Australia

Abstract

Successful infrastructure project outcomes are contingent upon robust risk management practices that support the realization of project objectives and future benefits in the most sustainable and economically efficient manner. This requires both a proactive risk management methodology that promotes the early identification and escalation of project related risks (and opportunities), and portfolio approach to project risk management that ensures that risks are managed in an integrated and cost effective manner across the whole portfolio of project activities. Together these enable more informed decision making and strengthen management agility in the face of uncertainty and change. They also provide a platform from which project management strengths and weaknesses can be identified and process improvement opportunities advanced so as to reduce the overall risk associated with the project. For the purpose of this paper the use of 'uncertainty' will be that in the plain English 'lack of certainty' sense. Consider the following illustrative definition of a project: an endeavour in which human, material and financial resources are organised in a novel way, to undertake a unique scope of work of given specification, within constraints of cost and time, so as to achieve unitary, beneficial change, through the delivery of quantified and qualitative objectives-Turner (1992). Rather than a focus on the occurrence or not of an event, condition, or set of circumstances, it is important to take uncertainty about anything that matters as the starting point for risk management purposes, defining uncertainty in a simple 'lack of certainty' sense. Uncertainty management is not just about managing perceived threats, opportunities, and their implications; it is about identifying and managing all the many sources of uncertainty that give rise to and shape our perceptions of threats and opportunities. It implies exploring and understanding the origins of project uncertainty before seeking to manage it, with no preconceptions about what is desirable or undesirable. Key concerns are understanding where and why uncertainty is important in a given project context, and where it is not. The scope for uncertainty in any project is considerable, and most project management activities are concerned with managing uncertainty from the earliest stages of the Project Life Cycle (PLC), clarifying what can be done, deciding what is to be done, and ensuring that it gets done. T. C. Haskins. Risk management's role within management of change project lifecycle, (2008).Uncertainty is in part about 'variability' in relation to performance measures like cost, duration, or 'quality'. It is also about 'ambiguity' associated with lack of clarity because of the behaviour of relevant project players, lack of data, lack of detail, lack of structure to consider issues, working and framing assumptions being used to consider the issues, known and unknown sources of bias, and ignorance about how much effort it is worth expending to clarify the situation it is useful to define 'risk' as an uncertain effect on project performance rather than as a cause of an (uncertain) effect on project performance. Such a definition of project 'risk' is 'the implications of uncertainty about the level of project performance achievable. (6 pages)