Chapter 2

Planning for Risk Management

“You can observe a lot just by watching.”—YOGI BERRA

Planning for risk involves paying attention. When we don’t watch, projects fail.

How many? One frequently quoted statistic is 75 percent. The original source for this assertion is a study done in 1994 by the Standish Group and documented in “The CHAOS Report.” There are reasons to be skeptical of this number, starting with the fact that if three of four projects actually did fail, there would be a lot fewer projects. What the Standish Group actually said in its study was that about a quarter of projects in the sample were cancelled before delivering a result. In addition to this, roughly half of the projects were “challenged,” producing a deliverable but ...

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