Risk Management Attitude, Essay Example

Being Risk Averse

A risk averse manager is going to take the path of least conflict through the project. This may not always be the most expedient way in order to get a project completed on time, within scope and within budget. You need to teach the Manager to understand the nature of the risks faced and sometimes these represent challenges which must be overcome. This is how you learn by mistakes but provided you have approached this in a logical and scientific manner it is possible to mitigate risks to an acceptable norm. Critical Path Analysis (CPA) often helps in navigating the path of least resistance, hence the hot spots are more easily identifiable. The need to establish a risk register in order to manage these and illustrate by traffic lights, Red, Orange, Green. Red being high risks and green being low.

Risk Seeking Manager

The risk seeker likes the uncertain nature of the project and will look for new challenges that the project represents. This can prove dangerous because the project manager might go off scope and create a change condition that proves adverse to the project scope and terms of reference. This may also impact other dependent projects because of failure to complete the original scope on time. This type of PM may not take the risks seriously and as such not fully understand what they represent to the project.

Risk Neutral Manager

This manager analyses the risks and considers both negative and positive outcomes. The PM then takes action for risk mitigation based upon the results of the analysis. This is the optimum position for most project managers. This manager is providing his skills and experience in a logical and objective manner. There are also Risk Tolerant managers that tend not to plan for risk mitigation and simply try to blaze their way through the project. This would be unacceptable where structured methods are being used and form the documentation trail through the project.