About Me

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Johannesburg, Guateng, South Africa
I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Construction Economics and Management at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. In the past, I have been a Lecturer in the School of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading, UK (2010-12); and also a Post-Doctoral Academic Fellow (2009) and Graduate Teaching Assistant (2008). I completed my PhD at University of Reading in Dec 2008 on the relationship between risk and price in tendering. Prior to transferring to Reading in Jan 2008, I was an MPhil/PhD student at KNUST, Ghana (2004-07). I gained my undergraduate degree in Building Technology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana in 1998-2002. During school days, my peers elected me to serve in several leadership positions including SRC President at KNUST. From 1994-96, I attended Suhum Sec. Tech. School after basic education at schools in Ghana and Nigeria. I did my National Service with the Fanteakwa District Assembly in 2002-03. After that, I worked at the Development Office of KNUST until I started my PhD in 2004. I am a co-organiser for the WABER Conference and an author of 30+ research publications.

Wednesday, 18 July 2007

AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO PROJECT RISK IDENTIFICATION AND PRIORITISATION

Here is the abstract of a paper I presented at the CM&E 25 Conference at Reading, UK in July 2007

AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO PROJECT RISK IDENTIFICATION AND PRIORITISATION

Samuel Laryea

Department of Building Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, PMB, Kumasi, Ghana


One of the aims of a broad ethnographic study into how the apportionment of risk influences pricing levels of contactors was to ascertain the significant risks affecting contractors in Ghana, and their impact on prices. To do this, in the context of contractors, the difference between expected and realized return on a project is the key dependent variable examined using documentary analyses and semi-structured interviews. Most work in this has focused on identifying and prioritising risks using relative importance indices generated from the analysis of questionnaire survey responses. However, this approach may be argued to constitute perceptions rather than direct measures of the project risk. Here, instead, project risk is investigated by examining two measures of the same quantity; one ‘before’ and one ‘after’ construction of a project has taken place. Risks events are identified by ascertaining the independent variables causing deviations between expected and actual rates of return. Risk impact is then measured by ascertaining additions or reductions to expected costs due to the occurrence of risk events. So far, data from eight substantially complete building projects indicates that consultants’ inefficiency, payment delays, subcontractor-related problems and changes in macroeconomic factors are significant risks affecting contractors in Ghana.

Keywords: contractors, Ghana, risk, risk identification, risk impact.

REFERENCE
Laryea, S. (2007) An experimental approach to project risk identification and prioritization. In, CME25: Construction Management and Economics: past, present and the future, 15-18 July 2007, University of Reading, Reading, UK

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