Abstract
Construction plays a key role in economic and social development in every country. Several countries, especially developing ones, carry out several construction projects to better their economies. According to worldwide research, there is a high failure rate and poor performance experienced by most construction projects due to poor risk management in contracts and projects execution and these make developing countries struggle in economic growth and development. Risk management in construction is a crucial management process needed to reach objectives of the projects with respect to environmental sustainability, time, safety, quality and cost. To secure work, minimize losses and make profit, it is vital to manage the multifaceted risks that we face in construction projects. Construction risks are events that influence quality, cost, objectives and time. Analysing and managing risks in construction mainly relies on experience, judgement and intuition.
Many construction projects were abandoned, costly, prolonged or delayed because of poor risk management. Projects face one risk or another and if these risks are not timely identified, assessed, managed, controlled or mitigated, the successful execution of the project will be adversely affected. These unidentified risks and uncertainties pose a serious threat to the success of a project. The interface risks between clients and contractors in most cases are not clearly identified during project design and planning stages and are properly managed. Organisations rarely use formal methods to analyse risks because they are not sure of how suitable they are in construction projects. If risks associated with projects are not managed effectively, they will affect project cost, time and quality adversely. Because of doubts on which methods that suit construction projects and insufficient knowledge, formal techniques for analysing and managing risks in construction projects are hardly used. Risk identification and analysis will be carried out in this research and a framework developed for risk analysis that will be adopted by contractors, subcontractors, developers, stakeholders, project participants, investors both local and foreign when contracting and executing construction works.
The study involved a mixed method where both the quantitative and qualitative data from the participants were analysed using appropriate statistical methods. The results from the
`
iii
interviews showed that risk reduction, risk avoidance, risk sharing and contingency plans are the best method adopted by most organisations to manage risks and from the survey responses, communication among project stakeholders, information and knowledge sharing, quality control, risk identification, safety management, construction supply chain risk management were the risk management approach adopted by most organization that have most impacts on the success of the project.
The objective of the study is to develop a framework to minimize risks in construction projects so that quality baselines, cost and time and other project objectives will not be influenced by these risks and uncertainties. The study identified various challenges, risks, uncertainties, unidentified risks faced in existing construction projects and developed the techniques and tools for risk identification and minimisation. The findings will be useful to construction industry in effectively identifying, analysing and mitigating risks and uncertainties in construction projects.
Keywords: risk management, stakeholders, construction industry, risk, lifecycle, interfaces, uncertainty, construction supply chain