The prescription and practice of work on the flight deck

Technological change has led to the proceduralisation of flight deck work. Yet accidents attributable to pilot error still occur. CSCW studies of work suggest work as prescribed does not always reflect work as practised. While one might expect this to be less true of safety critical settings like the flight deck, the case studies we present provide support for this distinction. We present two re-framings which better capture the status of procedures on the flight deck. One case study illustrates what else is required in order to make procedures work. The second illustrates how procedures are customised. Instead of seeing them as prescriptions of work we view them as resources for action and boundary objects. We discuss design implications of this re-framing