ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces the techniques of project risk management. Risk management is a technique designed to help us deal with the known, the benign, the predictable. Of primary importance is uncertainty spotting. The impending arrival of a peripety will be included in uncertainty management strategy. A project manager can protect his or her reputation by taking a more careful approach. The basic strategy is to act as a refusnik, declining to take on any project unless all issues have been resolved and it is uncertainty-free. The reader can perhaps adopt some of the principles of the protectionist while being more pragmatic. In principle there are three broad strategies: the innocent, the protectionist and the ProjectCraft player. The chapter discusses two types of project uncertainties: task uncertainties and social uncertainties. The risk register is a management tool, but it has political implications. Risk register includes an item raising the possibility that the executive may withdraw support from the project.