Term Paper on Project Risk Management

Working to understand the risks a project may endure along with the cost associated is critical in every project management plan. Understanding potential risks based on the project type, resources needed, timeline and budget still leaves gaps that creates uncertainty for actually predicating the outcome of the project. There is not a true way to predict when and where a project risk will occur but designing a plan to properly address and manage those risks will increase confidence while eliminating the element of surprise.

Risk refers to any potential problems that would threaten the likelihood of success for or any project. These potential problems might prevent a project from achieving some or all of its objectives by increasing time and cost. Risk factors can even

Risk: A risk is the chance, high or low, that any hazard will actually cause somebody harm. (the likelihood of it happening).

Risk or threat is common and found in various fields of daily life and business. This concept of risk is found in various stages of development and execution of a project. Risks in a project can mean there is a chance that the project will result in total failure, increase of project costs, and an extension in project duration which means a great deal of setbacks for the company. The process of risk management is composed of identifying, assessing, mitigating, and managing the risks of the project. It

Risk refers to a likelihood, probability, a chance that a loss may occur in a given organization. Most of the times, there is a high risk when there is vulnerability. In this case, vulnerability refers to a weakness that the organization has. Risk assessment refers to the process of identification of potential hazards and proper analysis of the expected losses if those hazards occur (Homeland Security, n.d.). Risk assessment as a way of profiling risk according to impact to the organization. Some organizations have business impact analysis exercises geared towards determination of potential hazards based risk assessment approaches. Organizations’ risk differ depending on the size and the type of business they are doing. The disparity in organizations’ risk call for different adaptation of risk assessment approaches. Even with the disparities of the businesses, proper risk management not only ranks the risks according to the seriousness but also identifies the best methods to control risks in an organization.

When we delve into the word 'risk ', we find that it has a multitude of meanings, and that it is nowhere near as clear and precise as the advocates of traditional risk assessment assert, for example Hansson (2002) identifies five different common uses for the word risk, and Ekberg points out a "proliferation of risk definitions" and a whole range of different understandings of risk (2007 p345).

Risk is defined as an event that has a probability of occurring, and could have either a positive or negative impact to a project should that risk occur. Project managers should keep a watchful eye on all of the project 's risks as they have a direct impact on a project’s cost, schedule, and performance. All projects assume some element of risk, and it’s through risk management where tools and techniques are applied to monitor and track those events that have the potential to impact the outcome of a project.

Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements (Project Management Institute, 2008; Gordwin, 2012). When applying this knowledge effective management of appropriate processes is required. Risk Management is considered most critical and includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and monitoring and control on a project. The purpose of the risk management plan is to establish framework in which the project team will identify risks and develop mitigation strategies to avoid, eliminate or convert to

Defined by Coopers textbook, risk is the exposure to the consequences of uncertainty and has two elements: the likelihood of something happening that has an impact on the project objectives, and the positive or negative consequences of something impacting the project objectives (Cooper, Grey, Raymond, & Walker, 2005)

Construction projects can be extremely complex and fraught with uncertainty. Risk and uncertainty can potentially have damaging consequences for the construction projects. Therefore nowadays, the risk analysis and management continue to be a major feature of the project management of construction projects in an attempt to deal effectively with uncertainty and unexpected events and to achieve project success. Risk is inherent on construction projects and disputes frequently arise. One in four construction projects results in a dispute that leads to arbitration or litigation. With large scale, complex projects the likelihood of serious, time-consuming and expensive claims increases.

Definition: A Risk is an unwanted situation which might arise in an organization which might lead to negative impact on the desired result. Risk management plans involves the analyzing, managing and evaluating the projects risk and threats. It involves layout of the entire project i.e from the beginning during and after results of the project.

In order to perform project risk management effectively, the organization or the department must know the meaning of the risk clearly. With regards to a project, the management must focus on the potential effects on the objectives of the project, for example, cost and time (Loosemore, Raftery and Reilly, 2006). Risk is a vulnerability that really matters; it can influence the objectives of the project

Risk allocation is performed as part of the development of the project structure, which takes into account the distribution of responsibilities and risks during the planning, construction, financing and operating phases (Corner, 2006). The aim is to identify an efficient and effective structure that optimises the costs of the project and ensures that the risk occurrences do not damage the project (Delmon, 2009). According to Grimsey and Lewis (2007) risk allocation has two elements: optimal risk management and value for money. The first implies that the

This assignment is included in the 2014 session of the Risk Management module of the MSc in Project Management course at University of Aberdeen. The main purpose of the assignment is to demonstrate my understanding of the issues involved in Risk Management and how they are applied in my current Project environment. The assignment is split in to two questions as detailed below.

The point that Kippenberger (2000) is making in his article titled ‘there’s no such thing as risk free project’ is that almost everything we do in a project involves a risk of some kind – by so saying, it is therefore essential that we are prepared or able to deal with risks. Most literature puts emphasis on the negative connotation that the word ‘risk’ carries. For instance, Chapman and Ward (2003) provide the meaning of risk as: hazard, chance of bad consequences, loss, and exposure to chance of injury or loss. Galway (2004) defines risk as an event which is uncertain and has negative impact, and similarly, Martin (2008: 38) defines risk as the ‘chance of something occurring that has an adverse effect on the project’. This negativity highlights the fact that problems can occur or things can go wrong and it is therefore important to have a systematic approach to managing them. Therefore in project management, risk management is necessary to increase the chances of the proposed project succeeding.