CHAPTER 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION In the past few years, there has been a considerable amount of interest shown by the construction industry in terms of risk management techniques used. The significance of proper risk identification and management has reached across the broad underwriting lately, in that its essential in that amid the early phases of examination of the project. It is of direct assistance in establishing project constraints and provides useful data to assist the choice between projects. Risks in building projects are treated with little care by contractors and if they are not treated accordingly over the time period, it could contribute to the project in a negative way. Risks are seen as a probability of occurrence of a
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Today it is virtually certain to be inadequate. Failure to some projects have been attributed to lack of proper risk management strategies. There is therefore a need to understand these issues, that is, the risks when constructing residential buildings. This project will look at risk management strategies used by contractors in Lagos state, Nigeria. Risk Management Strategies seek to ensure that all goes according to plan and project objectives are achieved.
1.2 AIM The main aim of this project is to carry out a study of the nature of risk associated with residential building construction work and strategies used by contractors curtailing effects of risk on selected sites of Lagos state.
1.3 OBJECTIVES
The objectives are:
1. To identify nature of risks associated with residential building construction within Lagos State.
2. To evaluate risk management strategies used by building contractors in Lagos state.
3. To analyze risks analysis techniques used by these professionals in the construction industry.
4. To identify the best practice of Risk Management strategies initiated at different stages in the project life cycle.
5. To provide recommendations for project managers of residential building project based on best practice.
1.4 PROJECT DELIVERABLES
The project deliverables are:
1. A literature review covering the nature of risks associated with residential building construction and risk management used within Lagos State.
2. An analysis of risks analysis
Working to understand the risks a project may endure along with the cost associated is critical in every project management plan. Understanding potential risks based on the project type, resources needed, timeline and budget still leaves gaps that creates uncertainty for actually predicating the outcome of the project. There is not a true way to predict when and where a project risk will occur but designing a plan to properly address and manage those risks will increase confidence while eliminating the element of surprise.
risks and determine the likelihood and consequence of that risk occurring during the project. The
Risk management attempts to recognize and manage potential and unforeseen trouble spots that may occur when the project is implemented (Larson & Gray F, 2003). So, risk management will allow the project manager of “The Renovation of the Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport” identify as many risk event as possible, minimize their impact, manage response to those risks that do materialize, and therefore provide
Technological changes also lead to a source of risk among construction projects. Advancements in new technologies may present problems to designers and constructors, therefore increasing the risks. New facilities or technologies may render the former obsolete and thus affect the nature of the construction.
This can range from the right timing to take a new job to timing being the difference between life and death for a patient. It is important to have rational thought in your decision-making process but in some cases timing is everything and you must be ready and willing to make a split-second decision because someone’s life depends on that decision. In other cases, it makes sense to take your time and carefully think about your options such as leasing a new building or planning for the next big construction project. Thus, the sooner risks are identified, the sooner plans can be made to mitigate or manage them. Assigning the risk identification process to a contractor or an individual member of the project staff is rarely successful and may be considered a way to achieve the appearance of risk identification without doing it.
Risks management is an important step during the process of a project. Failing to manage a risk may result in unforeseen event happening and a project’s failure. For example, with limited budget, an unforeseen event or an accident occurs in the middle of a project and this matter has not been considered and needs a big sum of expense, then the project may be stopped because of this unexpected event. We should know it is necessary to understand how to identify risks and assumptions based on the information. After identifying risks, it is important for project managers to set contingency plans to prevent and deal with these risks when they occur. Of course, several problems may happen during considering
Risk or threat is common and found in various fields of daily life and business. This concept of risk is found in various stages of development and execution of a project. Risks in a project can mean there is a chance that the project will result in total failure, increase of project costs, and an extension in project duration which means a great deal of setbacks for the company. The process of risk management is composed of identifying, assessing, mitigating, and managing the risks of the project. It
Construction projects can be extremely complex and fraught with uncertainty. Risk and uncertainty can potentially have damaging consequences for the construction projects. Therefore nowadays, the risk analysis and management continue to be a major feature of the project management of construction projects in an attempt to deal effectively with uncertainty and unexpected events and to achieve project success. Risk is inherent on construction projects and disputes frequently arise. One in four construction projects results in a dispute that leads to arbitration or litigation. With large scale, complex projects the likelihood of serious, time-consuming and expensive claims increases.
In order for a home building project to survive its purpose, risk analysis is essential so that occurrences that may affect the projects in the end can be identified, analyzed, assessed, managed and monitored. Because of the risky processes that are involved in the projects of home building construction, risk analysis and mitigation is the most useful tool in achieving good project and planning in home buildings as well as other constructions. If good risks management procedures are well conducted, the team’s level of confidence will be boosted, and this will enable or project to run and smoothly achieve its goals while facing and tackling each risk. Risk management will also come in handy as time will be saved as well as the
Within a project, the project’s success and budget belong to and are the responsibility of the customer. The Customer should have the final say in regards to what is acceptable and unacceptable in regards to risk and the quantification of risk. It is however, the contractor’s responsibility to be the primary source of expertise on a project or what they are being contracted to do. The contractor should offer their opinion and recommendations, and the customer should take their contractors opinions and recommendations seriously due to their expertise in the area. Overall, collaboration between the customer and the contractor should be the ultimate way to resolve a matter of dispute. Members from both the customer and contractor side should meet discuss historical events, modeling and simulation to arrive at the appropriate answer. Also, with quantifying risk, the customer and the contractor should be able to go back and look at the data. With risk quantification, there should be very little room for opinion and judgment which should make it easy to base a decision or a resolution based on hard core data. If a solution or an answer is not able to be decided upon, a third party consultation
In order to perform project risk management effectively, the organization or the department must know the meaning of the risk clearly. With regards to a project, the management must focus on the potential effects on the objectives of the project, for example, cost and time (Loosemore, Raftery and Reilly, 2006). Risk is a vulnerability that really matters; it can influence the objectives of the project
Risk allocation is performed as part of the development of the project structure, which takes into account the distribution of responsibilities and risks during the planning, construction, financing and operating phases (Corner, 2006). The aim is to identify an efficient and effective structure that optimises the costs of the project and ensures that the risk occurrences do not damage the project (Delmon, 2009). According to Grimsey and Lewis (2007) risk allocation has two elements: optimal risk management and value for money. The first implies that the
This assignment is included in the 2014 session of the Risk Management module of the MSc in Project Management course at University of Aberdeen. The main purpose of the assignment is to demonstrate my understanding of the issues involved in Risk Management and how they are applied in my current Project environment. The assignment is split in to two questions as detailed below.
The research takes a case study approach. The case study analysis dwelt on risk management by Contractors who work on energy and utility construction projects, including strategies and supporting structures for managing risks, complete with an analysis of how these strategies and structures are implemented and supported by the Contractors resources base. The researcher specifically chose utility contractors for this study as the Energy and Utilities sector play an indispensable role in the global economy and in the UK, industry employs around 2% of the UK workforce (AGCAS, 2012). Moreover, the UK government identified the Utilities companies as companies that are heavily involved in risky incidents affecting their sector thus playing a crucial role in the preparation and planning for emergencies responsibilities (UK Government, 2013). According to Yip (2003) construction is risky as it almost always certainly involves loss of time and money. Above all, any denial of service during outage result in impact on communities (Lindman, 2008) and utility services are no exception. Against this background, it could be argued that contractors working on construction projects undoubtedly play a significant role in managing risks in order to stay in business.
Bunni, N (1986). Publisher; Spoon Press, Place of Publication; London. Risk and insurance in construction. 2nd ed, p215.