Introduction
This book is about Project Risk Management, a point that should be emphasized as this discipline is not the same as business or financial risk management. The author, Edmund Conrow, has over twenty five years of experience in this field, a substantial part of it in, or associated with, US government departments or agencies such as Air Force, Army and Navy, Department of Defense and NASA. Edmund adopts the writing style of these people so it will appeal particularly to the US federal government market, the source of the many examples and recommendations contained in the book.
According to Edmund, "The purpose of this book is two fold: first to provide key lessons learned that I have documented from performing risk management on a wide variety of programs, and second, to assist you, the reader, in developing and implementing an effective risk management process on your program."[1] "In effect, this book discusses how to implement sound risk management on a wide variety of defense, commercial, and other programs."[2]
A point should be emphasized here. Edmund writes this book from the perspective of a government department or large corporation conducting project risk management in the course of acquiring the necessary services for undertaking a significant program or project. As we shall see, this leads to a somewhat different project risk management process model compared to the popular North American project model.
The author claims that the text describes practices that can be used by both
project management and technical practitioners including those who are unfamiliar
with [project] risk management.[3] However,
in reading the book we found it highly sophisticated and felt that the reader
does need a good knowledge, or at least considerable experience with significant
projects, to appreciate its value. If that is true, then we would be surprised
if such a person did not have some familiarity with project risk management.
Indeed, although chapter 2 provides an introduction and overview, the author
states "This is not an introductory text on risk management - the book assumes
a working knowledge of the subject."[4]
Since the book is about project risk management, whenever "risk" is mentioned
in the book, "project risk" is implied. So, we shall do the same.
1. Conrow, E. H., Effective Risk Management, 2nd Edition,
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., VA, 2003, p xvii.
2. Ibid. p xxi.
3. Ibid. Back cover.
4. Ibid. p xx.
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