The Silver Lining of Project Uncertainties

Implications for Project Management Practice

Any unique project endeavor is mired in uncertainty. There will always be circumstances which cannot be predicted. So how can we plan for them? How can we develop contingency procedures if we have no idea what might happen? Almost every project manager has faced uncertainty; however, not all of them have realized it. In this study we see that some project managers are incorrectly identifying risk as situations of uncertainty. This ambiguity can be traced back to the disparate definitions of risk across general texts, research, and practical guides. For this study we defined project risk as: Known-unknowns which are basically events, circumstances, situations, or conditions that have a potentially ...