Cognitive risk management in construction projects

Cognitive risk management in construction projects will be this article main topic.

There is a difference in definition of risk and uncertainty, as uncertainty is the absence of information required to make a decision. With a cognitive approach to risks the risk management becomes three dimensional, the risk source, the risk event and the extent of how a decision maker can respond to the risk source and event as the probability of a future event is a property of the decision maker. As risks are from definition deviation from expected value, positive or negative. Decisions are made to eliminate risks and with sufficient knowledge of possible risks turn them into chances, thus introducing risk management.

In order to manage risk and uncertainty it is important to understand four elements of the risk management process of identifying, assess, respond and control of the risk events and their sources and the corresponding threats and opportunities to the risk event. These elements will be further inspected and a possible framework will be defined from the learnings to tie it together. The limitations of these four elements will then be further discussed.

The cognitive model of risk and uncertainty on projects will be introduced and the four standpoints of knowns and unknowns, identifications in the modern construction industry, assessment of the risk with the use of tools as the probability/impact matrix and with the classification of the risk source and risk event the consequences can be mitigated or avoided altogether with the proper approach to risk management in construction.