Customisable framework for project risk management

The purpose of this paper is to emphasise on the need for efficient and effective project risk management practices and to support project managers in increasing the cost certainty of projects by proposing a new framework for project risk management.

The author adopts a “constructivist” methodology, drawing on practices common in construction management sciences and new institutional economics.

The author presents a holistic and customisable project risk management framework that is grounded in both practice and academia. The framework is holistic because, amongst others, all steps of the typical risk management process are addressed. The framework is customisable, because it allows for alternative ways of implementing the project risk management steps depending on the project-specific circumstances.

The framework does not address the potential unwillingness of the project players to set up a project risk management process, at all. The proposed framework has not yet been tested empirically. Future research will seek to validate the framework.

The framework is designed to account for the difficult circumstances of a complex construction project. It is intended to support decision makers in customising a practical yet comprehensive project risk management concept to the characteristics of the unique project. Although many other project risk management concepts are designed based on the assumption that actors are perfectly rational and informed, this framework’s design is based on the opposite assumption. The framework is dynamic and should adapt over time.