An information and knowledge management methodology in analyzing the risks in public private partner

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An information and knowledge management
methodology in analyzing the risks in public
private partnership projects
UBC P3 Project Academic Workshop, December 6
2006, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

• Cheryl Nelms, PhD Candidate
• Department of Civil Engineering
• University of British Columbia

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Presentation outline

• Current industry challenges and research gaps in
  managing risk information
• Research questions
• Features of a risk management approach building
  on past work
• Current and proposed work

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Current challenges for management of risk
information (industry)

• Identifying the full spectrum of risk events
  achieving realistic valuations of likelihoods and
  outcomes
• Accomodating different cognitive styles in
  estimating likelihoods and outcomes
• Improving the integration of the risk management
  process within the overall project management
  process
• Tracking and monitoring risks during the project
  life cycle
• Modeling the interaction of risks events and the
  cumulative impact of multiple risk events on the
  temporal/spatial dimension
• Accounting for the different value systems of
  stakeholders.

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Research questions

• 1. What are most appropriate role(s) for the
  machine and users vis a vis a computer-based
  methodology.
• Automation and specialization vs. flexibility to
  model a diverse range of project types and
  ability of users to modify the contents.
• 2. How should the cognitive styles of those
  providing the inputs and project risks be
  represented?
• Linguistic, point and range estimates

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Research questions

• 3. How should the relationship between project
  context and project risks be represented?
• How should the project context be modeled?
• 4. How should representations of project risks
  and their relationship with project context be
  exploited to gain insights for decision making?
• What querying, reporting, and visualization
  functions and formats are of use?
• How should the evolution of risk information and
  outcomes over the project life cycle be
  accomodated?

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Research questions

• 5. What knowledge can be re-used for future
  projects?
• How can such content be archived in a project
  neutral format?
• How can risk knowledge from past projects be
  extracted from archives?
• What assistance can be given to the user in
  deciding the appropriate content to re-use?

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Research Approach

• Literature Search
• Case Studies
• Canada Line Project P3
• Federal facilityprocurement strategy undecided
• Survey(s)
• Risk management survey currently available
• Interviews with practitioners

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Modeling the project context risk drivers
Organizational / contractual (Who Why)
Physical components (What)

• PROJECT
• MODEL

Processes - schedule, methods (How When)
Environments natural, man-made (Where When)
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Linking views using the process view as the
gateway
RR
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Project risk register (RR)
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Current work

• Ongoing work includes
• Continuing to monitor the literature, and conduct
  case studies and industry web survey(s)
• Using visualization strategies to address the
  distribution of risks by location, time,
  responsibility, and risk driver(s), and their
  potential interaction
• Supporting multiple elicitation techniques to
  assist users articulate value systems, risk event
  likelihoods and outcomes
• Developing knowledge management libraries of risk
  issues and related events and mitigation
  strategies.

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Contact Details

• Cheryl Nelms
• Department of Civil Engineering
• University of British Columbia
• cnelms_at_telus.net
• 778 834 9823