Uncertainty management in the design phase of road projects

Abstract

Uncertainty management in the project's design phase is perceived to be one of the important stages before the project execution. Studies on uncertainty management could influence projects’ objectives such as cost, time, and quality. With the importance of the design phase, there is less research in the project's design phase which tries to know important uncertainties and measures for managing them. Multiple case study approaches were adopted for doing this research. Data was collected through a narrative search, a document study, and interviews. Data analysis of cases showed that there are different uncertainties with various origins in each case and strategies for tackling them were different. In both cases, owners mainly focused on the strategic and contextual uncertainties mostly and contractors focused on operational uncertainties and they transfer strategic or contextual uncertainties to the owner. In both cases, mitigation strategy has been applied mostly for tackling uncertainties, and acceptance strategy has not been observed in cases. The project's complexity, the contract's collaboration form, and the actors’ role are factors that influence the uncertainty management strategies in projects. This study revealed the differences and similarities in the two cases from uncertainty factors and uncertainty management strategy based on qualitative evaluation.