Managing Project Uncertainty for Stakeholders

Risk management studies have paved the ground for the study of uncertainty in project management, which focuses on the origins of threats and opportunities, instead of focusing on threats and opportunities per se. Stakeholders are key factors in causing uncertainty. This paper attempts to examine the impact of uncertainty in a real case. The Expansion of Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq designed by Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University is a project that demonstrates the role of a multitude of diverse stakeholders. For the sake of analysis, the Salience Model was chosen amongst eight different models proposed for assessing interest, power and legitimacy of stakeholders. Nevertheless, to include the interactions between different stakeholders, this model was combined with the Network Model. As a result, the key project stakeholders were determined with respect to their impact as the Shrine Guardian, main contractor, donors, terrorist groups, and local contractors. The most important sources of uncertainty with significant impact on cost, time and quality of the Project include the social conditions in Najaf, progress rate and change of officials.