Introduction | Book Structure | Risk Management is for Adults
Notable Quotes | What We Liked | Downside | Summary 

Notable Quotes

Some of the quotable quotes that demonstrate the authors experience and orientation include:

"One of the key implementation issues that must be addressed is how to overcome a corporate culture that is lacking or even negative toward risk management."[13]

"I would also be remiss if I did not say that risk management can be very political in some programs."[14]

"I have also found that the overall effectiveness of a risk management process is primarily determined by two factors, namely, technical sophistication and implementation efficiency."[15]

"Although risk avoidance may sometimes be the best risk handling approach, program managers should not expect miracles to occur on demand to resolve risk-related issues that should have been properly dealt with much earlier."[16]

Edmund also takes issue with the Project Management Institute ("PMI") over its definitions of "project" and "program" and the use if the word "temporary". He states:

"I do not disagree with these definitions, but in risk management there can be a blurring between the terms project and program that makes the distinction in definitions difficult and somewhat artificial. For example, large-scale development activities often have a time horizon (e.g., many years) and may be single items (e.g., line item) from a funding perspective. Hence, they may not be a temporary endeavor depending on one's definition of temporary (thus leaning toward the term program). In other instances they may be viewed as a collection of items from a funding perspective (thus leaning toward the term program), yet may result in a single product (thus leaning toward the term project)."[17]

We agree that the term "temporary" is inappropriate in the PMI definition, although we are not sure that multiple funding sources necessarily converts a project into a program. We have our own views on the desirability of multiple funding sources, but that is different matter. In the book, Edmund uses project and program interchangeably, perhaps because of the variety of organizational cultures and their predispositions that he has dealt with, rather than any specific definition.

Risk Management is for Adults

What We Liked

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