Project control practices to enable sustainable project management

Purpose Project control is essential for ensuring that sustainability goals are achieved in sustainable project management (SPM). However, research into the specific and holistic control practices that can be adopted at the execution phase in SPM remains limited. This study explores the project control practices that enable the control and attainment of sustainability goals in SPM, drawing on data from expert panels. Design/methodology/approach A novel hesitant-fuzzy Delphi approach was integrated with hesitant-fuzzy interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC). Findings The results show that, of the 21 control practices identified in the literature, 12 were selected by panels of 13 experts as the prioritised practices relevant to the control and attainment of sustainability goals in SPM. Expanding on control theory, we further show the characteristics of the prioritised practices by categorising them using the novel MICMAC and ISM conceptual frameworks across low, medium and high uncertainty scenarios. Practical implications Our managerial implications provide recommendations for adopting flexible, actionable and context-sensitive execution control practices to influence outcomes and behaviours towards targeted sustainability goals in both project processes and deliverables. Originality/value This study offers an original contribution to the SPM literature by identifying and empirically testing the contextual relevance of project execution control practices, revealing how their prioritisation and interdependence shift across varying project contexts.