Empowering Risk Communication: Use of Visualizations to Describe Project Risks

Abstract

Risk information that is used during project risk identification and assessment should be communicated well to enable risk-informed decision making. This study aimed to use risk descriptors for risk contextualization and explore how visualization can improve the communication of project risk information. Risk descriptors (e.g., assumptions and controllability) were identified, and two workshops were held to verify the selected descriptors and explore the effectiveness of visualizations for risk communication. The first workshop was designed to assess the perceptions of different risk experts, and the second workshop was a case study application to evaluate the usability of risk visualization. Qualitative analysis of the first workshop revealed four themes, specifically standardization, representation, customization, and practicality, to be considered during risk visualization. The second workshop confirmed the value-added through the use of visualizations and the usefulness of risk descriptors. Although this study did not focus on the best way of delivering the most useful data, it contributes to the existing body of knowledge by characterizing risk descriptors and introducing new insights regarding the use of visualization for communicating and describing risks in projects.