A Single DEA-based Indicator for Assessing the Multiple Negative Effects of Project Risks

Risk assessment is an important phase in project risk management. In general, the negative effects of project risk factors can be reflected in multiple aspects, such as cost overruns, schedule delays and poor quality. In this paper, we first explain why data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be used as the tool to rank the negative effects of project risk factors, and then propose how to use DEA to evaluate the negative effects of project risk factors and rank project risk factors by using a single indicator. It could be helpful to identify key risk factors for further risk response. A numeric example is employed to illustrate the proposed method. The results show that our method can be good used to measure the negative effects of project risk factors. It could provide decision making support for project managers in risk response decision.