Raising risk awareness in infrastructure tenders

Contractors are trying to deal with the increased complexity of projects through the use of systems engineering as a design methodology, to ensure conformity to the specifications and requirements of their design and decision-making processes. The purpose of systems engineering is to gain a better understanding of customer demand and use this understanding to improve decision making throughout the life cycle. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is commonly used to support decision making throughout the entire systems engineering process. MCDA supports conflict resolution and compliance with stakeholder needs, requirements, and preconditions. At the same time, the interactions between requirements, subsystems and preconditions are full of risk because detailed design information, resources and time are scarce in a tender. Consciously managing risk in tenders is essential for preparing a bid since the decisions made in this phase can have significant consequences for both the schedule and the costs. A prerequisite for assessing risk is to be aware of the risks and to perceive a decision as risky. Potential risks are easily neglected or overlooked in a context where time and resources are scarce, available assessment tools are hardly applied and decisions are based on experience and knowledge. This raises the question to what extent contractors are aware of the role of risk in making design decisions and how risk awareness can be raised. The aim of this dissertation is to increase the understanding about the risk awareness of contractors in integrated design decisions during the tender phase of complex infrastructure projects. It also aims at suggesting possible direction for raising risk awareness of contractors when making integrated design decisions.