Project risk management practices in the UAE construction industry

Managing risk is fundamental to the successful delivery of construction projects. Construction companies respond to risks by adopting various risk management practices. There is a need to evaluate these practices in order to identify deficiencies and to identify key barriers impeding the successful implementation of a comprehensive risk management process. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to construction professionals in the UAE. Respondents indicated that they apply risk management processes frequently especially risk identification and quantification. Although most companies employ risk management practices, there is a need to improve certain practices and increase their frequency of use. Some of these practices include using decision trees, planning risk responses and assigning risk response owners. Respondents from international and local companies agreed on the top three barriers to risk management implementation which are managers' understanding of the techniques, finding suitable risk management methods and difficulty in obtaining estimates and assessment of probability.