An analysis of the impartial implementation in practice of risk identification in technical projects

Journal article, 2019

Risk identification in the case of technical projects is an issue that has been extensively studied in the context of many previous research efforts; however, a thorough study of the respective literature clearly reveals a methodological and application gap between research and practice, which is further increased by a wide discrepancy when it comes to definitions and procedures applied. This paper proposes the consideration of risk sources in the risk identification process as a means to bridge the identified gap and reduce discrepancy. The paper presents the results of the processing and analysis of real projects’ risk data through unstructured interviews with the experts that provided the data, and then examines their correlation to a comprehensive risk sources checklist drawn from previous research. The results of this cross-checking clearly highlight the extensive misconceptions of the related terms and notions in practice (e.g. what is perceived as “risk identification”, is actually risk source identification), as well as the partial implementation of procedures that reflects a similar partial approach to technical project risk analysis in practice (e.g. the risk sources actually identified are fewer than the ones that could be identified through a holistic approach to technical project risk analysis). These results draw the attention to the need for more focused risk sourcerelated research, since the new paradigm shift in technical project risk analysis, highlights the importance of risk sources.