Developing a Theoretical Framework for Implementation of Risk Management Process in Iranian Construction Projects

Comprehensive research studies have been conducted in recent years, specifically about risk management in construction projects, resulting in establishing methods of risk management with improved performance and efficiencies, benefitting for the companies and industries. However, there are still lacks in this area. Lack of enough knowledge about the structured methods of risk management is still significant, preventing the methods from being widely employed. This master thesis is a research carried out on steel-framed structure buildings in Iranian construction projects, investigating the risk management methods in five different stages of the construction, which are earthwork, reinforcement, formwork, concrete work and steel structure. Perception and employment methods of risk management have been studied in the mentioned stages, which has been done through questionnaire surveys and checklists. To do so, 35 members of top Iranian construction companies were chosen and asked to participate in the survey, where 20 of them participated and answered the questionnaires and checklists and as a result, response rate was found to be 57.1%. To develop the risk identification efficiently, Risk Breakdown Structure was also employed. These methods were selected to be done among a certain number of construction companies. To assess the likelihood of risks occurrence, and their impact on projects objectives, qualitative analysis method was implemented through probability and impact matrix. The assessments were done separately on each objective, i.e. time, cost, quality, and health and safety, resulting in determination of 30 main risks. An explicit result of the survey was the unfamiliarity of the Iranian construction companies with the formal methods of risk management. It was found that most of the companies are still dependent on the previous experiences, checklist and brainstorming methods and consultations to identify the potential risks and face with them. This unfamiliarity which could be due to lack of education, has been focused in this research and in fact, in this study, it has been tried to develop responding techniques to the potential risks, which have been identified as high risks, in order to have more efficient risk management. Keywords: Iranian construction industry, steel structure buildings, qualitative method, risk management, risk management process