This project was for the project risk management course regarding Sydney Opera House. it includes : What are the significant risks that the Sydney opera house faced? What was so problematic about the project ? Did the uncertainty management works satisfactorily in the Sydney opera house project? The lessons we learned in Sydney Opera House project

2. It was established in 1974.
Designed by Joren Utzon.
The cost of building is around
100m dollars.
Annual number of visitors is 7
million.

3. What are the significant risks
that the Sydney opera house
faced?

4. At the beginning: (the most disastrous construction
projects in history, why?)
• In any project, the most important factors are: time, cost and
quality.
• The original timetable for the project was four years, and with
a budget of AUS $7 million. However, it ended up taking 14
years to be completed and cost AUS $102 million. For Sydney
opera house project, the last factor was the most important
one.
• The whole project started as a competition between architects,
they weren’t given any instruction regarding the time and cost
and only cared about the quality of the design.

5. What was so problematic about the project ?
• Utzon cared only for the design aspect rather than time
and costs objectives.
• There was no real project manager.
• The supervisor committee members lacked technical skills.
• The government ended up being a burden to the project by
inhibiting changes during the progress of the operations.
• The public who were concerned with the project’s success.

6. The next stage: (The most controversial stage of
the entire construction.)
• Costs were rising so government stepped in and monitored all
payments.
• Utzon submitted an updated budget of the projects with a total cost
of AUS$12.5 million.
• The government began withholding payments to Utzon.
• In 1966 Utzon felt he was forced to resign from the project because
the restrictions they put on his creative freedom.
• Then the project was taken over by three Australian engineers.

7. After Utzon quit:
• Utzon didn’t leave any designs to work with.
• So new ones had to be created and that added a huge cost to
the original estimate, which came to AUS$85 million.
• This came as an insult to Utzon because he has been
alarming the government with the increasing costs for years
but her was rejected every time.
• This was the greatest evidence that he had been unjustly
treated.

8. At the end :
•Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sydney Opera House in
1973, after 17 years of construction. By 1975, thanks
to the lottery system the building had paid for itself.
Utzon never came back to Australia to see the
incredible art of architecture he created. In 2003, he
was honored with Pritzker Prize, the most renowned
architectural prize in the world.

9. Did the uncertainty management works
satisfactorily in the Sydney opera house project?
• No , it didn’t .why ?
1- The project’s goals and objectives were not clearly defined and plans
were changed constantly.
2- There was no leadership and guidance during the construction.
3- Internal communication issues.
• BUT it was one of the greatest things that happened to Australia.

10. The lessons we learned in this project :
• 1- Don’t be short-sighted and narrow down the success of a project to
its’ management success, we need to take into consideration the
long-term objectives and benefits.
• 2- ALWAYS Identify the risks that you might face in the project.
• 3- Mitigation of the risk is the core of any risk management process
and by using an experienced project manager they would have
reduced the probability and impact of risks to an acceptable level.