Safety regulation changes during projects: The use of system dynamics to quantify the effects of change

Uncontrolled change can have an important effect on large design and development projects. Such effects are systemic and so are difficult to quantify. One particular source of change that can have a major effect is changes to safety regulations. The risk of such change needs to be recognised and quantified. This paper highlights this risk by describing two transport manufacturing projects that were evaluated post mortem as part of claims procedures. The types of effects caused are described, as are the issues involved in their quantification. Traditional tools were inadequate to quantify these effects. The use of System Dynamics is described to demonstrate the project dynamics, to model the interrelationships between factors and to quantify their combined effect. This technique can be used for many areas of project modelling.