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0:00
Hello. I'm Mike Clayton
and I'm the founder
of online PM Courses,
which is a website and
a YouTube channel.
In this talk, we're
going to cover one of
the most important
project management
disciplines, project
risk management.
0:19
Before we go any further,
we need to start
by understanding
what we mean by the word 'risk'.
A risk is uncertainty
that can have an effect
on the outcomes.
Therefore, a risk has two
primary characteristics.
It has the level
of uncertainty, or
the likelihood, or
probability that it occurs
and secondly, we have
the effect that it can
have on the outcome,
which we usually call impact.
So, if that's what a risk
is, what's risk management?
0:50
According to an Arab proverb,
one day the Prophet Muhammad saw
a Bedouin leaving his
camel without tying it
and he asked the man, why
don't you tie down your camel?
To that, the Bedouin replied,
I put my trust in Allah.
The prophet replied,
tie your camel first,
then put your trust in Allah.
That is a great proverb for
us as project managers.
We must do everything we can
to minimise the risks
to our project,
but ultimately, we
need to recognise
that there are
still uncertainties
that we cannot control for.
1:29
Risks are uncertainties
that can affect outcomes
and as project managers, we
very naturally think about
those uncertainties
that can have
an adverse impact
on our outcomes.
It's important for me
to recognise, however,
the effect on outcomes could
equally be beneficial
as adverse.
However, as project managers
we do concentrate on
the adverse effect on
outcomes, the threats.
There's another important
distinction that we
need to make in the domain
of risk management.
