Identifying and Managing Project Risk: Essential Tools for Failure-proofing Your Project

Front Cover
AMACOM, 2003 - 354 pages

"There's a good reason project risk management is one of the most vital of the nine content areas of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (TM). Important projects tend to be time constrained, pose huge technical challenges, and suffer from a lack of adequate resources. It's no wonder that project managers are increasingly focusing their attention on risk identification.

Identifying and Managing Project Risk is a practical guide to minimizing the possibility of failure in critical projects. The book takes readers step by step through every phase of a project, showing them how to consider the possible risks involved at every point in the process. Relevant figures and diagrams support the text and illustrate key scenarios. At the end of each chapter is an analysis of how the principles just discussed applied to a supreme example of what many once considered a truly impossible project: the building of the Panama Canal.

Packed with real-world information, this book is essential reading for any project manager seeking to complete projects smoothly and successfully."

From inside the book

Contents

Why Project Risk Management?
2
Risk
3
Benefits and Uses of Risk Data
9
The Risk Management Process
11
The First Panama Canal Project
13
Planning for Risk Management
18
Project Selection
19
Overall Project Planning Processes
21
Qualitative Risk Analysis
165
Quantitative Risk Assessment
170
Key Ideas for Activity Risk Analysis
180
Managing Activity Risks
183
Root Cause Analysis
184
Categories of Risk
185
Risk Response Planning
187
Managing a Specific Risk
214

Defining Risk Management for the Project
30
The PERIL Database
32
Key Ideas for Project Risk Planning
36
Identifying Project Scope Risk
38
Sources of Scope Risk
39
Defining Deliverables
42
HighLevel Risk Assessment Tools
49
Setting Limits
54
Work Breakdown Structure WBS
56
Other Risks
62
Document the Risks
65
Key Ideas for Identifying Scope Risks
66
Identifying Project Schedule Risk
69
Sources of Schedule Risk
70
Activity Definition
74
Estimating Activity Duration
75
Activity Sequencing
94
Document the Risks
102
Key Ideas for Identifying Schedule Risks
103
Identifying Project Resource Risk
105
Sources of Resource Risk
106
Resource Planning
110
Staff Acquisition
115
Procurement Planning and Source Selection
120
Cost Estimating
128
Cost Budgeting
130
Key Ideas for Identifying Resource Risks
131
Managing Project Constraints and Documenting Risks
133
Analyze Constraints
134
Scope Options and Opportunity Management
139
Resource Options
144
Schedule Options
146
Assess Options and Update Plans
151
Seek Missing Risks
152
Key Ideas for Constraint Management and Risk Discovery
157
Quantifying and Analyzing Activity Risks
159
Quantitative and Qualitative Risk Analysis
160
Risk Probability
161
Risk Impact
162
Key Ideas for Managing Activity Risks
218
Risk Plans 19061914
219
Quantifying and Analyzing Project Risk
222
ProjectLevel Risk
223
Aggregating Risk Responses
225
Questionnaires and Surveys
226
Instructions for the Project Risk Questionnaire
227
Project Simulation and Modeling
234
Analysis of Scale
249
Project Appraisal
250
Project Metrics
252
Key Ideas for Project Risk Analysis
263
Managing Project Risk
265
Project Documentation Requirements
266
Project StartUp
268
Selecting and Implementing Project Metrics
272
Management Reserve
274
Project Baseline Negotiation
279
Project Plan Validation
283
Key Ideas for Managing Project Risk
289
Monitoring and Controlling Risky Projects
291
Applying the Plan
292
Project Monitoring
293
Collecting Project Status
296
Metrics and Trend Analysis
298
Responding to Issues
303
Communication
304
Project Archives
312
Project Reviews and Risk Reassessment
313
Key Ideas for Risk Monitoring and Control
318
Closing Projects
321
Project Closure
322
Project Retrospective Analysis
324
Key Ideas for Project Closure
330
Conclusion
332
Selected Detail from the PERIL Database
338
Selected Bibliography
346
Index
350
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Tom Kendrick (San Carlos, CA) has more than 25 years of project management experience, twelve of which were spent as a part of the Hewlett-Packard Project Management Initiative.

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