Formalized and Systematic Risk Management Process for Complex Projects

Project risks can give negative impacts on project objectives such as delay, cost overruns, decrease in quality and security aspects, then we can observe serious project failures. Risk management aims to identify the possible causes of threats and opportunities, to assess them qualitatively and quantitatively and to propose an action plan for risks deemed critical in order to decrease the undesirable effects on project objectives. Complex projects are affected by numerous risks and opportunities because of their complex organizational plan with a large number of stakeholders, complex planning with a long life-cycle, complex resource management, technical issues, and particular environmental factors. These types of projects may also present strategic importance for the project stakeholders. It is essential to identify and analyze the project risks and opportunities through all the project life-cycle and develop risk response planning in order to decrease the adverse risk effects. In this study, we propose a formalized and systematic Risk Management Process for the complex and strategic projects. This process helps to identify and analyze the risks and opportunities systematically throughout all the project life-cycle, with an in-depth project analysis, associated with the project planning, organizational structure, resources, and environmental factors. The formalized and systematic risk management process is adapted to the dynamic feature of the projects, to the different perspectives of the project stakeholders and proposes an effective risk management method in parallel with the project management. A user-friendly prototype interface has been developed to apply the process for real construction projects. How it works in practice is illustrated through a case study of the construction of a US$20 million dollar Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) project in France.

Learning objectives:

Defining the features and the environmental factors of a complex and strategic construction project,
Modeling a multi-dimensional project analysis for identifying the main sources of risks and opportunities for complex projects,
Developing a formalized and systematic risk management process,
Identifying and analyzing project risks throughout the project life-cycle in parallel with the project management,
Proposing a strategy for an optimistic risk allocation among the project stakeholders,
Applying the process in a case study of a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) project.