Customer Reviews

Risk Management: Concepts and Guidance

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When I began my Project Management Professional certification through George Washington University and Motorola several years ago, one of the first courses I took was one dealing with project risk analysis and response. The text for the class was Risk Management: Concepts and Guidance, by Carl Pritchard, and has served as a blueprint for assessing and mitigating risk in many projects for which I was responsible.

Pritchard's emphasis is not on designing assessments and mitigation strategies for all circumstances, but on building useful information that can be applied toward a particular project situation. This book has a natural alignment with the principles and concepts of <<A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)>>, produced by the Project Management Institute's (PMI) Standards Committee. While the PMI identifies four phases of risk management, Pritchard adds a fifth phase upfront, called risk planning.

The book is divided into two major sections: Section 1 addresses risk processes and practices; Section 2 is concerned with specific risk management techniques. The four appendixes contain information on contractor risk management, list of risk sources, basic probability concepts, quantifying expert judgment, and special notes on software risk. The book concludes with a glossary of terms, bibliography, and index.

Of particular value in the book are the 50+ figures and tables that illustrate some of the more complex statistical/probability models used in risk assessment and mitigation. Each chapter follows a template that structures the same type of information. For example, each chapter in Section 2 contains the following subheadings:Technique Description; When Applicable; Input and Output; Major Steps in Applying the Technique; Use of Results; Resource Requirements; Reliability; Selection Criteria; Output; Summary

The 218-page book (softcover)is an easy read and a highly useful desk reference for any project manager concerned about planning for and mitigating risk to projects. My dog-eared, heavily highlighted copy has served me well over the past 3 years.

I used this text as part of a Risk Management course, and I expect to use it in practice. It's an excellent resource for risk managment tools. Especially for quantifying financial risks.