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

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.

As a project manager, you know that complicated projects are inherently risky business. Between time constraints, technical challenges, and resource difficulties, things that can go wrong often do—which is why one of the most important parts of your job is considering the possible risks involved at every point in the process.

Fully updated and consistent with the very latest Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Identifying and Managing Project Risk takes you through every phase of a project, helping you guard against failure by improving and increasing your risk analysis capabilities.

The book outlines proven methods for project risk planning, drawing on real world situations and hundreds of examples—including what many once considered a truly impossible project, the Panama Canal—to demonstrate key ideas in the risk management process. You’ll learn how to use high level risk assessment tools, implement a complete system for monitoring and controlling projects, and properly document every possible consideration. The book contains sections on the different types of risk to consider when planning; how to identify key issues associated with project metrics; activity sequencing; Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); analysis of scale; and cost estimating and budgeting.

Identifying and Managing Project Risk outlines the essential concepts involved in project risk planning and provides indispensable details and advice on topics such as:

• -The benefits and uses of risk data
• -Setting limits and defining deliverables
• -Procurement planning and source selection
• -Constraint management and risk discovery
• -Quantitative and qualitative analysis
• -Project simulation and modeling
• And much more

Analyzing aspects such as available resources, project scope, and scheduling, this new edition also explores the growing area of Enterprise Risk Management as well as other important new developments in the field.

This valuable resource moves beyond risk management basics involving insurance, financial, and investment portfolio risk to examine areas like information technology, software engineering, product development, and other high tech fields, giving you a well-rounded understanding of what goes into making project risk identification a crucial element of project management strategy.

Your ability to identify and manage project risk is necessary for the smooth and successful completion of all projects, regardless of size, type, or scope. This book will help you eliminate surprises and transform risk into a variable you can manage and keep safely under control. Comprehensive and completely up-to-date, Identifying and Managing Project Risk helps you determine risk factors thoroughly and decisively…before a project gets derailed.

Tom Kendrick, PMP, is an internal project management consultant for Visa Inc. and the author of Results With­out Au­thority. He has more than 30 years of project management experience, 12 of which were spent as a part of the Hewlett-Packard Project Management Initiative. He lives in San Carlos, California.