In a profession like engineering, there are numerous uncertainties that may occur that hamper the development of a project. This means that adequate knowledge about risk management is fundamental for this profession. Thus, what is risk management? It refers to the process of identifying, understanding and assessing risks to ensure that effective control measures exist to manage the risk. A good example of how uncertainties may affect the implementation of a project occurs in the case of Turner Engineers. While they had the mandate of constructing a new stadium in the traditional oval manner, they met a rude shock when owners of part of the land of the construction site informed them that they could not go on with construction. This is because the titles of the land of the site of construction had not yet been transferred. This was a massive blow to the engineering team that had laid ground to start the stadium construction. Though risks exist when carrying out construction projects, this kind of risk was not conceivable in their minds. How were they expected to start construction when about three quarters of the construction site was not yet transferred?
The whole engineering team was in a state of dilemma. They had just waited for a referendum on the new stadium that they narrowly won only to be met by another obstacle. They could not afford to wait any longer for the construction process to begin because they would be late with the set timeline to complete the stadium. As engineers, this would be a massive blow for their reputation and would affect the chances of them getting another huge project in the future. As a result, they had to come up with ways of managing this unforeseen risk. One method involved working on the land they had while waiting for the other parcels to be transferred to them. Secondly, they had to change the design of the stadium to enable them start the construction process. The new stadium design would resemble a series of tall interconnected buildings. This is because they could only start working from one side of the piece of land as they wait for the remaining portion to get cleared.
However, no stadium had been constructed in this manner. It was another gamble/risk taken by Turner engineers in order to start the actual construction. This risk was possible because they had an architect in their team that gave the new construction design an okay. What does this tell us about risks and their management? As engineers, we must be prepared for any uncertainty that may affect the projects we handle. As much as we may have the initial designs for these projects, it is necessary to consider the ‘what if’ questions. For example, what if the design cannot work in a given case or if it contains too many future risks? Does it mean that the project has to stall while we make changes? This is quite unacceptable. As engineers, we must create back up plans to take over the place of initial designs in case the latter do not work. This will demonstrate out ability to manage risks coherently and effectively without incurring excessive losses on the project we intend to construct.
