The Role of Risk Management in Project Management

Risk is defined by the probability of injury, harm, loss or danger. We all take risks every day, and don’t even think about implications.

Probability: The likelihood that a threat will exploit a vulnerability. Probability can use a scale of low, medium, and high, assigning percentage values to each.

Risk – A risk in a health and social care setting is when there is a strong possibility of harm occurring through a hazard.

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

A risk is the likelihood of a specific consequence occurring with the potential to cause harm.

Risk literature often separates 'risk ' from 'uncertainty ', defining the risk as a measurable probability that something will happen, however, even where experts claim they can give an exact probability value to a risk, there is always a possibility that the experts may be wrong (Hansson 2002 p4). In common usage the words 'risk ' and 'uncertainty ' are often synonymous (Lupton 1999 p9)

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)

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.

There is no single definition of risk. Many insurance authors traditionally have defined risk for uncertainty. A risk is an uncertainty concerning the occurrence of a loss.

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

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.

Risk can be defined as “The possibility of a (negative) event occurring”. Risk and uncertainty go hand in hand. When you are certain about something that you do then there is less or no risk involved. There is more risk when there is uncertainty about a particular outcome and you still go for it.

The completion of any project depends on the execution of various parameters mostly set at the beginning of the project. In order to complete the project to satisfactory levels, the project must be completed within the stipulated timelines, fall within the approximate budget and be of the required quality standards. However, most of the projects are affected by adverse changes and unforeseen events that occur during the execution period. Research shows that the magnitude of change is dependent on the size of the project, with large projects experiencing more uncertainties due to several factors including; planning and design complexity, interest groups having deferring opinions, resource availability, Economic and political climate and statutory regulations, which may necessitate change of plan. Most of the uncertainties are known to occur in the concept phase and if not intervened, they may affect the entire project. The burden falls on the management of such risk as some managers choose to ignore the uncertainties since they call for additional costs. Other inherent risks may go unnoticed and therefore remain unsolved,