IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v291y2021i2p482-490.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrating risk into estimations of project activities' time and cost: A stratified approach

Author

Listed:
  • Asadabadi, Mehdi Rajabi
  • Zwikael, Ofer

Abstract

Time and cost estimations of project activities are challenging tasks for project managers and planners. As a result of the high level of risk and uncertainty present during the early stages of projects, the reliability of these estimations during project planning remains poor. This study argues that this reliability can be improved through using the ‘concept of stratification’. This concept considers a set of states and describes a system that receives inputs (associated with outputs), based on which the system transitions from one state to another. This provides a unique structure that is capable of considering uncertainty related to events that may occur during a project. This paper explains how the concept of stratification can be used to compute estimations of the time and cost of activities involved in a project. The method is illustrated with a construction project that has uncertain events. By determining specific activities’ estimated time and cost, the project's estimated time and cost can also be calculated. Thus, the proposed method increases the reliability of estimations of projects’ completion time and cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Asadabadi, Mehdi Rajabi & Zwikael, Ofer, 2021. "Integrating risk into estimations of project activities' time and cost: A stratified approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 291(2), pages 482-490.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:291:y:2021:i:2:p:482-490
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2019.11.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221719309294
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.11.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tukel, Oya I. & Rom, Walter O. & Eksioglu, Sandra Duni, 2006. "An investigation of buffer sizing techniques in critical chain scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(2), pages 401-416, July.
    2. Stefano Tonchia, 2018. "Project Time Management," Management for Professionals, in: Industrial Project Management, edition 2, chapter 10, pages 117-129, Springer.
    3. Xuejun Hu & Erik Demeulemeester & Nanfang Cui & Jianjiang Wang & Wendi Tian, 2017. "Improved critical chain buffer management framework considering resource costs and schedule stability," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 159-183, June.
    4. De, Prabuddha & James Dunne, E. & Ghosh, Jay B. & Wells, Charles E., 1995. "The discrete time-cost tradeoff problem revisited," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 225-238, March.
    5. Zhang, Junguang & Song, Xiwei & Díaz, Estrella, 2016. "Project buffer sizing of a critical chain based on comprehensive resource tightness," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(1), pages 174-182.
    6. Babu, A. J. G. & Suresh, Nalina, 1996. "Project management with time, cost, and quality considerations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 320-327, January.
    7. Asadabadi, Mehdi Rajabi, 2017. "A customer based supplier selection process that combines quality function deployment, the analytic network process and a Markov chain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 263(3), pages 1049-1062.
    8. Pierre Robillard & Michel Trahan, 1976. "Technical Note—Expected Completion Time in Pert Networks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 177-182, February.
    9. Medaglia, Andres L. & Fang, Shu-Cherng & Nuttle, Henry L. W. & Wilson, James R., 2002. "An efficient and flexible mechanism for constructing membership functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 84-95, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katarina Buganova & Maria Luskova & Jozef Kubas & Michal Brutovsky & Jaroslav Slepecky, 2021. "Sustainability of Business through Project Risk Identification with Use of Expert Estimates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Mehdi Rajabi Asadabadi & Hadi Badri Ahmadi & Himanshu Gupta & James J. H. Liou, 2023. "Supplier selection to support environmental sustainability: the stratified BWM TOPSIS method," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 322(1), pages 321-344, March.
    3. Kim, Byung-Cheol, 2022. "Multi-factor dependence modelling with specified marginals and structured association in large-scale project risk assessment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(2), pages 679-695.
    4. Dalia H. Dorrah & Brenda McCabe, 2023. "Integrated Agent-Based Simulation and Game Theory Decision Support Framework for Cash Flow and Payment Management in Construction Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-25, December.
    5. Vafadarnikjoo, Amin & Chalvatzis, Konstantinos & Botelho, Tiago & Bamford, David, 2023. "A stratified decision-making model for long-term planning: Application in flood risk management in Scotland," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xuejun Hu & Jianjiang Wang & Kaijun Leng, 2019. "The Interaction Between Critical Chain Sequencing, Buffer Sizing, and Reactive Actions in a CC/BM Framework," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 36(03), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Öncü Hazir & Gündüz Ulusoy, 2020. "A classification and review of approaches and methods for modeling uncertainty in projects," Post-Print hal-02898162, HAL.
    3. Hazır, Öncü & Ulusoy, Gündüz, 2020. "A classification and review of approaches and methods for modeling uncertainty in projects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    4. Junguang Zhang & Dan Wan, 2021. "Determination of early warning time window for bottleneck resource buffer," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 300(1), pages 289-305, May.
    5. Zhang, Jingwen & Elmaghraby, Salah E., 2014. "The relevance of the “alphorn of uncertainty” to the financial management of projects under uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(1), pages 65-76.
    6. She, Bingling & Chen, Bo & Hall, Nicholas G., 2021. "Buffer sizing in critical chain project management by network decomposition," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    7. Mohammadreza Sharifi Ghazvini & Vahidreza Ghezavati & Sadigh Raissi & Ahmad Makui, 2017. "An Integrated Efficiency–Risk Approach in Sustainable Project Control," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, September.
    8. Guofeng Ma & Jianyao Jia & Tiancheng Zhu & Shan Jiang, 2019. "A Critical Design Structure Method for Project Schedule Development under Rework Risks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Kosztyán, Zsolt T. & Szalkai, István, 2018. "Hybrid time-quality-cost trade-off problems," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 306-318.
    10. Kosztyán, Zsolt T. & Pribojszki-Németh, Anikó & Szalkai, István, 2019. "Hybrid multimode resource-constrained maintenance project scheduling problem," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 6(C).
    11. HazIr, Öncü & Haouari, Mohamed & Erel, Erdal, 2010. "Robust scheduling and robustness measures for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(2), pages 633-643, December.
    12. Junguang Zhang & Xiwei Song & Estrella Díaz, 2017. "Critical chain project buffer sizing based on resource constraints," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 671-683, February.
    13. Guofeng Ma & Shan Jiang & Tiancheng Zhu & Jianyao Jia, 2019. "A Novel Method of Developing Construction Projects Schedule under Rework Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-25, October.
    14. Xuejun Hu & Erik Demeulemeester & Nanfang Cui & Jianjiang Wang & Wendi Tian, 2017. "Improved critical chain buffer management framework considering resource costs and schedule stability," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 159-183, June.
    15. Mehrnoosh Zohrehvandi & Shakib Zohrehvandi & Mohammad Khalilzadeh & Maghsoud Amiri & Fariborz Jolai & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Jurgita Antucheviciene, 2024. "A Multi-Objective Mathematical Programming Model for Project-Scheduling Optimization Considering Customer Satisfaction in Construction Projects," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-16, January.
    16. Amin Mahmoudi & Saad Ahmed Javed, 2022. "Probabilistic Approach to Multi-Stage Supplier Evaluation: Confidence Level Measurement in Ordinal Priority Approach," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 31(5), pages 1051-1096, October.
    17. Jeunet, Jully & Bou Orm, Mayassa, 2020. "Optimizing temporary work and overtime in the Time Cost Quality Trade-off Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(2), pages 743-761.
    18. Janusz Kulejewski & Nabi Ibadov & Jerzy Rosłon & Jacek Zawistowski, 2021. "Cash Flow Optimization for Renewable Energy Construction Projects with a New Approach to Critical Chain Scheduling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-15, September.
    19. C-C Chang & R-S Chen, 2007. "Project advancement and its applications to multi-air-route quality budget allocation," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(8), pages 1008-1020, August.
    20. Mengqi Zhao & Xiaoling Wang & Jia Yu & Lei Bi & Yao Xiao & Jun Zhang, 2020. "Optimization of Construction Duration and Schedule Robustness Based on Hybrid Grey Wolf Optimizer with Sine Cosine Algorithm," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:291:y:2021:i:2:p:482-490. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.