Knowledge-Based Approach to Construction Project Risk Management

The construction industry consistently suffers from poor project performance due to a lack of formalized risk management procedures. A proliferation of techniques are available to support project risk management, but these have failed to meet the needs of project managers. Communication of risks tends to be poor, incomplete, and inconsistent. Part of the problem is a lack of common terms and descriptions in which risks and remedial measures may be identified, assessed, analyzed, and effectively communicated throughout the supply chain. Another part is the reliance on quantitative techniques, which are not always appropriate for use in project risk management. This paper presents a consistent methodology for construction project risk management, including a generic process model and underlying information model, common language for describing risks and remedial actions, fuzzy knowledge representation model to support quantitative risk analysis, and prototype software implementation. It is hoped that the methodology will help to facilitate more effective risk management while allowing all project participants to develop and share a greater understanding of project risks for improved performance.