Analysis of User Needs in Time-Related Risk Management for Holistic Project Understanding

Abstract

Evaluation of time-related risks often leads to changes and adjustments in construction schedules, but this influential process is not extensively mapped in literature because of the unstructured data. This absence causes information deficiency and confusion in communication, which, in turn, affects project planning and control, and hinders knowledge sharing and management. This research aims to investigate the obstacles in project execution with the assumption that a decision tree model can map user needs and trace workflows. To understand user needs, we first recorded the focus group discussions followed by semi-structured interviews, then transcribed them into a combined script of 120,000 words. Meanwhile, the prevailing standards of project execution were diagrammed to define ten interconnected categories and derive the workflow schemes to obtain a novel decision tree model, which was used together with the interview data to validate the probabilities and the weighted significance values. The next step was to quantify and prioritize the exact user needs and data specifications of the industry professionals during project execution. After the verification with the invited expert panel, the results show that the most predominant urgencies of time-related risk management are (1) the decision support tools using automated functions to check schedule logic and evaluating risks, (2) preparation assistance for risk communication, and (3) generation of risk mitigation scenarios. The findings can help to line up software development steps for scheduling programs and improve the quality of the risk response strategies for construction projects. One limitation of the current work is the sample size of interviewees, which could be enhanced by designing a questionnaire based on the findings and survey the construction industry.