Baker Rickaby

Dealing with Uncertainty in Megaprojects

School research theme: Management of Projects
Research supervisor: Professor Andrew Davies and Dr Ilias Krystallis
Start date: Autumn 2017

Large, complex projects (also known as megaprojects) face unexpected challenges, despite rigorous efforts to prevent them. Even the most proficient teams have difficulty handling such unforeseen uncertainties (the so-called “unknown unknowns”).

Baker is undertaking his PhD research in this area of megaproject management. Using an inductive approach, he is looking at the processes involved in dealing with unforeseen uncertainty across the different levels of a major infrastructure project within the UK. The research is sponsored by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).

Publications and other works

• Rickaby, B. (2019) Managing the “Unknown Unknowns” in Megaprojects: Strategic, Programme, Project. 7th International Megaprojects Workshop, June 12-14, Montreal, Canada.
• Rickaby, B., Krystallis, I., and Davies, A. (2018). Managing uncertainty (opportunities and threats) in megaprojects. Proceedings of the 14th International Research Network on Organizing by Projects (IRNOP) Conference, Dec 10–12, Melbourne, Australia, 24 pp.