The Risks of Risk Management

This paper is about Project Risk Management. In the project environment, Risk Management is an effective and prevailing method to deal with project uncertainties. However, it is far from being a panacea. Worse, risk management is filled with pitfalls that we must be aware of and avoid. Otherwise, the process won't help much, on the contrary, significant waste of resources and opportunities could result. Categorically there are three types of risks that we normally face in a project. The first two types of risks are known unknowns. Once they are identified, they can be managed. The third kind is due to human errors, which are often hidden and undetectable until they become crises. Though human errors can be deadly, since they are man-made, they are avoidable. In project risk management, we must do all the five steps right to be effective. At ITRI we have been successful.