Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity VUCA
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) is a way of describing or assessing difficult situations in terms of their level of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. It has been used in reference to politics, project management, military and humanitarian actions and various other fields.
The term originated from the US leadership theorists of the late 1980's but became more well known after it was adopted by the US army to describe situations from the 1990's, in particular those arising out of the cold war. It has also been used to describe global crisis such as pandemics, climate change and recessions.
In terms of construction a project management VUCA might be used to describe working environments that are permanently chaotic or unordered and as such different skills are needed to deal with this as opposed to situations that can be changed to create more order.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Climate change.
- Disaster.
- Helping communities recover from disasters and protecting them before they occur.
- Hurricane design considerations..
- Managing and Responding to Disaster.
- Managing projects in post-conflict and disaster zones APM
- Research and development in disaster response.
- Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
- Tsunami.
Featured articles and news
Conservation and transformation
Reading Ruskin’s cultural heritage. Book review.
Renovating Union Chain Bridge.
AI tools for planning, design, construction and management
A long, continually expanding list, any more to add?
Robots in the construction industry
From cultural characterisations to construction sites.
Empowering construction with AI integration
New horizons with a human touch.
Key AI related terms to be aware of
With explanations from the UK government.
A Better Hiring Toolkit for construction
Tooling up to hire under best practice standards in the sector.
Recharging Electrical Skills in Wales
Step by step collaborative solutions.
Ireland budget announcement 2025
CIOB responds with positivity, criticism and clarity.
The continued ISG fall out, where to go?
Support for ISG contractors, companies and employees.
New HES national centre for traditional building retrofit
Announced as HES publishes survey results which reveal strong support for retrofit.
Retrofit of Buildings, a CIOB Technical Publication
Expected to become one of the largest activities in the global construction industry.
Scope determination appeals and the Building Safety Act
Process explained following release of appeals guidance.
The ECA industry focus video channel
Keeping update with the industry session by session.
Over 25 recorded informations sessions freely available.
AT Awards 2024 ceremony East London October 25th.
Revisiting the AT community at the 2023 awards evening.
Comments
[edit] To make a comment about this article, or to suggest changes, click 'Add a comment' above. Separate your comments from any existing comments by inserting a horizontal line.