Description
The most essential component of every project manager’s job is the ability to identify potential risks before they cause unnecessary headaches and turmoil all around.
All projects are inherently risky, and complex ones can potentially be the downfall for even the most experienced project manager. From technical challenges and resource issues to unrealistic deadlines and problems with your subcontractors, any number of things can go wrong.
Fully updated and consistent with the Risk Management Professional (RMP) certification and the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), this book remains the definitive resource for project managers seeking to be pro-active in their efforts to guard against failure and minimize unwanted surprises.
From being able to draw on real-world situations and hundreds of examples of those who have gone before them, Identifying and Managing Project Risk will show you how to:
- Use high-level risk assessment tools
- Implement a system for monitoring and controlling projects
- Properly document every consideration
- Personalize proven methods for project risk planning to fit their specific project
Complete with fresh guidance on program risk management, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, simulation and modeling, and significant “non-project” risks, this one-stop indispensable resource is what every project manager needs to eliminate surprises and keep their projects on task.
Review
“Detailed, well-organized and comprehensive, Identifying and Managing Project Risk takes you through the planning, assessment and responses required for any kind of project of any size.” --Soundview
Book Description
Projects—especially complex ones—are inherently risky. Between time constraints, technical challenges, and resource issues, things can easily go wrong—making the identification of potential risks an essential component of every project manager's job.
Fully updated and consistent with the Risk Management Professional (RMP) certification and the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), Identifying and Managing Project Risk remains the definitive resource for project managers seeking to guard against failure.
Drawing on real-world situations and hundreds of examples, the book outlines the risk management process and provides proven methods for project risk planning. Readers will learn how to use high-level risk assessment tools, implement a system for monitoring and controlling projects, and properly document every consideration. Analyzing aspects such as project scope, available resources, and scheduling, the third edition also offers fresh guidance on program risk management, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, simulation and modeling, and significant "non-project" risks.
This practical book will help readers eliminate surprises and keep projects on track.
From the Inside Flap
Important projects tend to be time constrained, pose huge technical challenges, and suffer from a lack of adequate resources . . . which is why the identification of potential risks is an essential part of your job as a project manager. Things that can go wrong often do, so to plan for success, you need to have a thorough understanding of the risks inherent during every phase of the project life cycle.
Drawing on real-world situations and hundreds of examples, this book outlines the risk management process and provides proven methods for project risk planning. Long considered the definitive resource for project managers seeking to guard against failure—and now fully updated and consistent with the Risk Management Professional (RMP) certification and the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)—Identifying and Managing Project Risk is the one book no project manager should be without.
Outlining proven methods, demonstrating key ideas for project risk planning, and showing how to use high-level risk assessment tools, the book details what many once considered a truly impossible project—the building of the Panama Canal—to demonstrate key ideas in the risk management process. You’ll become familiar with essential concepts involved in project risk planning, with indispensable guidance 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
The book also contains sections on the different types of risk to consider when planning; cost estimating and budgeting; how to identify key issues associated with project metrics; Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); analysis of scale; and activity sequencing. You’ll learn how to properly document every possible consideration; implement a complete system for monitoring and controlling projects; and use high-level risk-assessment tools.
In addition, the Third Edition moves beyond risk management basics such as insurance, financial, and investment portfolio risk to offer fresh, up-to-the-minute guidance on topics including program risk management, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, simulation and modeling, significant “non-project” risks, and more.
Complicated projects are inherently risky business. Fully updated and revised, the Third Edition of Identifying and Managing Project Risk is the essential guide for avoiding surprises, and achieving incredible project success.
TOM KENDRICK, PMP, has over 35 years of project and program experience, including senior positions with Hewlett-Packard and Visa. A respected author, he received PMI’s David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award for the previous edition of this book. He is the Program Director for Project Management at UC Berkeley Extension.
From the Back Cover
The ultimate, most comprehensive resource on project risk management, Identifying and Managing Project Risk gives you the methodology and expert advice you need to keep every project safely on track. Extensively revised, the Third Edition is once again consistent with the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) and the Risk Management Professional (RMP) certification.
Identifying and Managing Project Risk takes you through every phase of a project, giving you dependable, repeatable techniques for considering all conceivable types of risk at any and every point in the process. Helping you eliminate surprises and transform risk into a variable you can manage and keep safely under control, the book provides you with the latest and best thinking on how to minimize risk and achieve incredible success.
Advance Praise for IDENTIFYING and MANAGING PROJECT RISK, Third Edition
“Identifying and Managing Project Risk remains the foundation for every project risk management library. Tom Kendrick’s applications of real world events and how risk management relates to them makes the material both real and easy to understand. Most important, it readily shows readers how to deal with their own situations. A must-read for any serious project manager.” — Craig D. Peterson, PMP, President, Risk Management Specific Interest Group
“Tom Kendrick’s book provides a useful model for managing project risks. It’s filled with valuable insights, illustrations, and rich examples that may be directly applied to readers’ own projects. Among my top recommendations.” — Jan Birkelbach, MBA, PMP, Project Team Consultant
“Risk management is all about setting yourself up for success at the beginning of a project. Tom Kendrick’s book is an excellent reference to do just that—arming you with valuable and practical information.” — Laszlo A. Retfalvi, P.Eng. PMP PMI-RMP; Principal at Retfalvi and Associates; and author of The Power of Project Management Leadership
“I have read and reviewed countless books for my graduate level Risk Management class, and Kendrick’s Identifying and Managing Project Risk was clearly the best available in print. The material is accessible for the inexperienced student, and thoroughly enjoyable and relevant for even the most experienced project manager.” — John J. Conard, Jr., Professor of the Practice, Project Management School of Engineering, Kansas University
About the Author
Tom Kendrick the former Program Director for the project management curriculum at UC Berkeley Extension, and lives in the Bay area near San Francisco, California. He is a past award recipient of the Project Management Institute (PMI) David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award for "Identifying and Managing Project Risk: Essential Tools for Failure-Proofing Your Project" (now in it's fourth edition). Tom is also a certified PMP and serves as a volunteer for both the PMI Silicon Valley Chapter and PMI.org.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it ...
So began every episode of the classic TV series Mission:
Impossible, and what followed chronicled the execution of that week's
impossible mission. The missions were seldom literally impossible,
though; careful planning, staffing, and use of the (seemingly unlimited)
budget resulted in a satisfactory conclusion just before the deadline--
the final commercial.
Today's projects should also probably arrive on a tape that "will
self-destruct in five seconds." Compared with project work done in the
past, current projects are more time constrained, pose greater technical
challenges, and rarely seem to have enough resources. All of this
leads to increased project risk--culminating too often in the "impossible
project."
As a leader of complex projects, you need to know that techniques
exist to better deal with risk in projects like yours. Used effectively,
these processes will help you recognize and manage potential
problems. Often, they can make the difference between a project that is
possible and one that is impossible. This is what Identifying and
Managing Project Risk is about. Throughout this book, examples from
modern projects show how to apply the ideas presented to meet the
challenges you face. This is not a book of theories; it is based on data
collected in the recent past from hundreds of complex projects worldwide.
A database filled with this information, the Project Experience
Risk Information Library (PERIL), forms much of the foundation for
this book. These examples are used to identify sources of risk, and
they demonstrate practical responses that do not always resort to brute
force.
The structure of the book also reflects the changes adopted in
the most recent edition of the Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) from the Project Management Institute
(PMI®, the professional society for project managers). The Risk section
of the PMBOK® Guide is one of the key areas tested on the Project
Management Professional (PMP®) certification examination administered
by PMI. This book is also consistent with the PMI® Practice
Standard for Project Risk Management and the topics relevant to the PMI
Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP®) Certification.
The first half of the book addresses risk identification, which
relies heavily on thorough project definition and planning. The initial six
chapters show the value of these activities in uncovering sources of
risk. The remainder of the book covers the assessment and management
of risk, at the detail (activity) level as well as at the project level
and above. These chapters cover methods for assessing identified
risks, establishing an overall risk plan for the project, making project
adjustments, ongoing risk tracking, project closure, and the relationship
between project risk management and program, portfolio, and enterprise
risk management.
It is especially easy on modern projects to convince yourself
that there is little to be learned from the past and that established ideas
and techniques "no longer apply to my project." Tempting though it is
to wear these hindsight blinders, wise project managers realize that
their chances of success are always improved when they take full
advantage of what has gone before. Neither project management in general
nor risk management in particular is all that new. Broad principles
and techniques for both have been successfully used for more than a
century. Even though many lessons can be learned from current projects
(as the PERIL database illustrates), there is also much to be
absorbed from earlier work.
As a graphic reminder of this connection, each chapter in this
book concludes with a short description of how some of the principles
discussed relate to a very large historical project: the construction of
the Panama Canal. Taking a moment every so often to consider this
remarkable feat of engineering reinforces the importance of good project
management practices--and may provide some topical relief from
what can be occasionally dry subject matter.
Risk in projects comes from many sources, including two that
are generally left out of even the better books on the subject: (1) the
inadequate application (or even discouragement) of project management
practices and (2) the all too common situation of wildly aggressive
project objectives that are established without the backing of any
realistic plan. These risks are related because only through adequate
understanding of the work can you detect whether objectives are
impossible, and only by using the information you develop can you
hope to do anything about it.
Identifying and Managing Project Risk is intended to help leaders
of today's complex projects (and their managers) successfully deliver
on their commitments. Whether you develop products, provide services,
create information technology solutions, or deal with complexity in
other types of projects, you will find easy-to-follow, practical guidance
to improve your management of project risk, along with effective practices
for aligning your projects with reality. You will learn how to succeed
with seemingly impossible projects by reducing your risks with
minimal incremental effort.
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