Risk factor prioritization in infrastructure handover to operations

Rodrigues, Thiago de Almeida; Ojiako, Udechukwu; Marshall, Alasdair; Mota, Caroline Maria de Miranda; Dweiri, Fikri T.; Chipulu, Maxwell; Ika, Lavagnon; AlRaeesi, Eman Jasim Hussain

Abstract

Worldwide, there are numerous reports of major infrastructure projects failing at handover to the operations phase following completion of the project development and delivery phase. While poor risk identification and prioritization has been identified as one of the causes of this failure, we know little about the specific risk factors project beneficiaries consider most important at this point of handover. With these issues in mind, we draw on a survey of key dry port project beneficiaries in Brazil to examine and prioritize the risks considered most important at handover to operations. Paying particular attention to project beneficiary heterogeneity and incongruence, we find eight key risk factors – ‘Cost’, ‘Location’, ‘Infrastructure’, ‘Accessibility’, ‘Operational’, ‘Economic’, ‘Political and social’, and ‘Environment’ that warrant emphasis. We reveal congruence among some project beneficiaries in terms of prioritization. We also find variations in handover to operations risks based on project characteristics. However, these characteristics appear to have very limited impact on prioritization. Our findings further point to risk blind spots at critical moments of project handover to operations. Overall, this paper contributes to project risk management/prioritization literature in the context of handover to operations.

Citation

Rodrigues, T. D. A., Ojiako, U., Marshall, A., Mota, C. M. D. M., Dweiri, F. T., Chipulu, M., …AlRaeesi, E. J. H. (2023). Risk factor prioritization in infrastructure handover to operations. International Journal of Project Management, 42(1), Article 102558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102558

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 25, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Dec 26, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 29, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 27, 2026
• Print ISSN: 0263-7863
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 102558
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102558
• Keywords: Handover to operations, Projects, Operations, Infrastructure, Risks, Prioritization
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/3440307