We often hear the word ‘project’ when work needs to be done. ‘I have a project at home’ is a regular phrase in daily conversation. In general, we see more andmore of our life as a series of projects. Going on holiday is a project; preparing a dinner with friends can be a project and training for a marathon can be a project.This mindset is likely to be something we have adopted from the construction industry. One of the first things you notice when starting work in the construction industry is that the unknown has a major impact on any project. You can even divide the unknown into the ‘known unknown’ and the ‘unknown unknown’.The way to handle the unknowns is to use tools developed in the riskmanagement field.These tools have been developed over many years and, when used correctly and continuously, can lead to more successful projects. We do not know all the risk aspects when starting a project. For example, can we know and predict all the risks and problems associated with an industrial process formassmanufacturing? Designing a new car is a project. Once the design is agreed upon and all the details for manufacture are in place, the task is complete.The next step is industrial production with certainty of performance and quality of the car known – at least in principle. Projects in the building and construction industry are unique and often only have a limited aspect of industrial process. For example, construction might use some well-defined processes such as the laying of sleepers and rail on a railway using a track-laying machine. However, uncertainty of the sub-soil conditions and other specific local conditions for the completed works will always sow the seed for risks and surprises. During execution of the works, the weather, the market situation, labour availability and so on influence the progress and certainty of achieving the agreed quality, budgeted price and finishing date. An essential element of any project is the need for good agreements between the parties to a project. Since the 1950s, FIDIC has produced standard contracts for the construction industry.The principles of these contracts focus on fair risk sharing and the most effective mechanisms for administering the project. FIDIC contracts for construction and design-build make the Engineer the responsible party for administering the contract andmanaging the project.Thus, FIDICcontracts are two-party agreements for a three-party process.