Gamez, E A (2009) Risk assessment for international development projects: Owner's perspective. PhD thesis, Northeastern University, USA.
Abstract
Risk analysis as an effective tool for planning and controlling cost and schedule has not been fully utilized in the construction industry, especially in projects implemented in the developing world. Planning techniques used in developing countries tend to be less sophisticated in prediction of risk events, forcing practitioners to react to problems as they arise, pushing performance measures like cost and schedule to finish off-target. Considering these countries' limited resources and their need for infrastructure to compete in the current global market, it becomes increasingly important to avoid missing established deadlines for major infrastructure projects. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to create a tool to facilitate and promote the use of risk assessment methodologies for owners of projects in developing countries and ensure projects finishing as predicted on-time and on-budget. The aim of this tool is to provide a step-by-step methodology that can be applied to major construction projects by practitioners with different levels of expertise. This tool incorporates learning from a statistical analysis of performance data from a sample of 89 highway projects constructed in 60 countries. The tool was developed in two steps. First, the major factors affecting highway projects were identified by a comprehensive review of project documents. Second, a methodology was developed to rank the risks affecting future projects. This was accomplished by developing a Risk Management Template. The sample of projects was collected from the World Bank's project database providing a wealth of information for the study, and more importantly, providing documentation from the original estimates to the final implemented results for each project. Based on the review there are a limited number of risk factors (i.e. : 20) mainly responsible for the performance of the projects. This is a major contribution because it demonstrates that major highway projects in developing countries can be managed more effectively by focusing on a few risk factors. The creation of the Risk Management Template tool to identify and rank project risks is another major contribution of this dissertation. It provides the necessary structure owners need to select the most important risk factors to be managed. Furthermore, the developed methodology standardizes the traditionally unsystematic risk selection process.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Touran, A |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction project; developing countries; highway; infrastructure project; learning; performance; documentation; risk analysis; risk assessment; risk management; owner; market; risk analysis; statistical analysis |
| Index terms: | database, statistical analysis, World Bank, owner, estimate, construction industry, dissertation, infrastructure project, risk factor, risk management, highway construction, risk assessment, documentation, international development project, performance measure, developing country, risk analysis, documents, practitioner, methodology, planning technique, construction project |
| Subjects: | practitioner, strategic management, risk assessment, research dissemination and communication, data science, institutional frameworks, financial and cost management, urban planning, production management, financial risk, professional development, development economics, performance measurement, civil engineering, research methods, infrastructure and transport systems, industry analysis, environmental hazards, data management, sociology |
| Topics: | Digital Applications, International Construction, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Governance, Cost Management, Information Management, Research Practice, Quality Management, Risk Management, Sustainability, Engineering Principles, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here