Contents Listing for the book ‘Managing Project Risks’

Managing Project Risks will be on sale soon. I’ve (finally!) finished the manuscript and I’m in the middle of content editing.  It has taken me a long time to get this far but at last I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here’s the contents listing:

Part One – Why You Need To Manage Project Risks

  • The Problem With Projects
    • Too many of our projects fail to deliver
    • This isn’t a problem that is going to get better any time soon
    • Lack of Risk Management is a key cause of project failure
  • Why Your Next Project Will Almost Certainly Fail To Deliver
    • Why most projects fail
    • The mistakes most project managers make in managing risks
    • How most project managers manage risk
    • Why more people don’t make risk management plans
    • The difference between a risk log and a risk management plan
  • The Devastating Effects Of Project Failure
    • Immediate effects of project failure
    • The lasting impact of project failure
  • Is Your Project Like Most Projects – An Accident Waiting To Happen?
    • Why managing risk is essential to delivering on time
    • Most projects are an accident waiting to happen – but is yours?
    • What kind of project do you have in terms of value and risk?
    • Which category does your project belong in?
    • How effective is your risk management process right now?
    • What’s the most likely end result for your project?
  • The Business Case For Project Risk Management
    • Project management reduces your project running costs
    • Project risk management reduces your likelihood of project failure
    • Project risk management reduces schedule slippage
    • Project risk management reduces project cost overruns
    • Project risk management reduces sickness and absenteeism
    • Project risk management gives you a faster return on your investment
    • Project risk management allows you to take on riskier, more profitable projects
    • Project risk management increases your financial return on your whole project portfolio

Part Two – Managing Project Risks

  • Three Ways To Make Risk Management Work For You
    • Keep it simple to start off with
    • Make it easy to maintain
    • Keep on communicating risks and what you’re doing about them
    • What happens when you remove risk from your project
  • Identifying Risks
    • Identify background risks – the risks in the wider organisation
    • Using risk management checklists and prompt lists
    • Producing a list of potential risks
    • Interview colleagues and get some advice
    • Using management check-lists
    • Create your list of general risks
    • Identifying project specific risks
    • The need to manage risks by deliverables
    • Identify risks for each deliverable
  • Quantifying Risks
    • Produce an initial list of prioritised risks
    • Probability – Impact (P-I) scoring
    • Risk workshop
    • How to hold an effective risk workshop
    • Why you need to invite your sponsor to the workshop and make sure they attend
    • How to get your team members to complete the risk management questionnaire
    • At your risk workshop
    • Appointing a Risk Manager
    • How to follow through after your risk workshop
  • Four Basic Risk Management Strategies
    • Risk Prevention Strategies
    • Preventative Actions
    • Terminate the Risk
    • Treat the risk
    • Contingency actions
    • Transfer the risk
    • Tolerate the risk
    • Why you should spend more time on preventing risks
  • Creating A Risk Management Plan
    • Updating your plan to include preventative actions
  • Creating Contingency Plans
    • Producing contingency plans for your most significant risks
  • Budgeting for Contingencies
    • Securing your project budget
  • Communicating Risks
  • Putting Your Risk Management Plan Into Action
    • Say hello to my little friends!
    • Your Top Ten risks log
    • Your top ten issues log
    • Your project plan summary
    • Your team meeting agenda
    • Your project team minutes
  • Monitoring and Controlling your Risks
    • Review your top ten risks at your weekly team meeting
    • Update your top ten risks and top ten issues
    • Send out your new top ten risk log
  • Risk Management Reporting
    • Send out updates in your regular project report
    • Send out your top ten risk log
    • Send out a quarterly risk report
    • Updating your risk register
    • Escalating risks
    • Creating momentum
    • Preparing people for the worst

Part Three – How You Can Get Better At Risk Management

  • Managing Dependencies
    • What is a project dependency?
    • Benefits of managing dependencies
    • When should you identify your project’s dependencies?
    • When shouldn’t you identify dependencies?
    • Identifying dependencies
    • Adding dependencies to your project plan
    • How to get agreement on dependencies and when they will be delivered
    • What to do when the dependencies break your plan
    • Reporting progress on dependencies
    • When dependencies become risks to your project
    • What you need to do if a dependency is likely to be late
    • What if someone won’t play ball?
  • Learning From Your Mistakes
    • When is the best time to hold a lessons learned review?
    • The one time that lessons learned reviews almost never happen
    • Why don’t we conduct more lessons learned reviews than we do?
    • How you can learn from your mistakes
    • When you have to shut your project down before completion
  • Managing Risks In Larger Projects
    • Why larger projects are more difficult to manage
    • How should you approach managing risks in larger projects?
  • Managing Programme Risks
    • The key differences between projects and programmes
    • Sources of programme risk
    • Understanding and managing programme risks that affect your project
    • Managing risks from other projects within the programme
    • Managing programme risks is all about communication
    • Managing risks to the programme
  • Using Monte Carlo Analysis
    • What is Monte Carlo analysis?
    • How does it work?
    • When should you use it?
    • When shouldn’t you use it?
  • Changing The Perception Of Risks In Your Organisation
  • A Taxonomy Of Project Risks
    • What is a taxonomy?
    • How can a taxonomy help you?
    • Creating your risk management taxonomy
    • Developing your own risk management questionnaire
  • Conclusion
  • Appendices
  • References
  • Further Reading
  • Index

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