Large-scale construction programme resilience against creeping disruptions: Towards inter-project coordination

Extant resilience research in project management focused mainly on the project level and sudden disruptions. However, resilience at the programme level, especially resilience against creeping disruptions, remains unexplored. This study adopts boundary object theory as the theoretical lens to explore programme resilience against creeping disruptions. Based on the case study of a large-scale construction programme Expo 2020 Dubai, a process model is proposed to unveil how programme resilience can be fostered through inter-project coordination. The model includes roles (i.e., program coordinators and project managers) and processes (i.e., preparation, mobilisation and response phases) that impact the resilience of the programme. The three-phase resilience process further corresponds to three boundary object-based coordination mechanisms: pull, match, and push, respectively. This study not only contributes to the project/programme resilience and management literatures, but also advances knowledge on resilience.