Recommended Readings: Project Risk Management

Being a project manager means you have to deal with uncertainty. It always brings negative reactions among the project managers and their upper management. As Bas de Baar says:

The problem with risk management is the negative image of the word “risk”. […] The tendency of most stakeholders is to jump very stressfully at the statement “this is a risk”. Therefore most of the time it’s not very easy to discuss about risks, because that’s always a conversation about problems. It’s very important the risk is not perceived as a bad thing, but as a positive attitude to make sure everyone will become a winner in the end.

Remember, risk management helps you being aware of the goals you have to achieve, and what can happen if you don’t satisfy the goals. It supports you in making the right choices!

So, have no fear of risks! In order to help you and to give you courage and self-confidence today’s recommended reading are devoted to the project risk management.

• Craig Brown of Better Projects wrote a huge series of 15 posts on project risk management. It covers almost every aspect of the risk management and it’s a great place to start learning and practicing good techniques to manage your project’s risks.
• PM Hut is another great source of high-quality knowledge about project management and there you can also find a lot of very helpful articles on risk management. I highly recommend you Creating Risk Profile Graphs by Mike Griffiths of LeadingAnswers, Project Risk Management – It’s Either Contingency Planning Now or Emergency Relief Later by Christoper J. Wright, and No Risk of Defects! Making Quality-Related Risks Actionable by Alan Koch.
• And at the end – another useful post from Bas de Baar of Project Shrink – Project Risk Checklist. The checklist is an extremely helpful tool which you can use in every project you undertake and the one Bas suggests is a very good starting point of your risk management proficiency.

Happy reading!