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David Hillson makes some very sensible observations in his article in the November issue of PM World Journal: One Size of Risk Process Doesn’t Fit All Projects and he offers some useful pointers as to exactly what you might scale up or down according to the size and type of project you are running. This article is well worth reading if you’re just starting out in project management and wondering how to risk manage in the absence of exact, qualitative, data or (at the other end of the scale) are wondering how to assess when too much risk management may be of itself a risk to project progress and achievement. David Hillson is author of Managing Risk in Projects, A Short Guide to Risk Appetite, Exploiting Future Uncertainty, Managing Group Risk Attitude and Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude.
I am delighted to say that the virtual journal, PMWorld is back after a month or two’s absence while the site was redesigned. If you have not used the jounal yet, I thoroughly recommend it as a source of free, independent and very good quality articles, case studies, reviews and reports on the whole world of project management. The highlights of Volume 1 Issue 1, from our perspective are: an article by Waffa Karkukly on the PMO Lifecycle; our Series Editor, Professor Darren Dalcher, on the risks of overstating benefits; Stephen Jenner on the fundamentals of project realization; and David Hillson’s thought-proving article ‘Kill the Risk Manager’. In the book reviews section, there are reviews of two Gower books: No Waste and Project Psychology.
Waffa Kakukly is author of the forthcoming Managing the PMO Lifecycle; Stephen Jenner is author of Transforming Government and Public Services; David Hillson is author of a clutch of Gower titles, including Managing Risk in Projects.
I am delighted to be able to tell you that David Hillson, a.k.a The Risk Doctor was awarded the PMI Eric Jennett Project Management Excellence Award at the recent Synergy Conference in London.
The award “recognises and honours an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the practice of the project management profession, demonstrating leadership and initiative while advancing both theoretical concepts and practical applications”. Many congratulations to David, who amongst his other achievements, has been a prolific author and contributor to the Gower publishing programme, including: Managing Group Risk Attitude, Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude, Exploiting Future Uncertainty, Managing Risk in Projects and, the forthcoming, A Short Guide to Risk Appetite.
Following the APM Project Management Conference 2010 Delivering the Future in Partnership, the APM Project Management Conference 2011 aims to issue a ‘call to action’ and address the challenges of a new world by defining a new kind of project management.
“New world, new project management looks at how the profession will rise to the challenges of the new world – climate change, technological advances, globalisation, social networks, public health, security and economic regeneration and growth. The challenges require fundamentally new ways of making sense and shaping a world we neither control, nor fully understand” writes Professor Darren Dalcher (Editor of Gower’s Fundamentals of Project Management and Advances in Project Management Series’) in his APM blog.
The APM Project Management Conference is an interactive forum bringing together project professionals and decision makers from across the public and private sectors. Date: Thursday 20th October 2011. Venue: The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London, EC1Y 4SD.
David Hillson (www.risk-doctor.com) will be presenting at the “Making Risk Work” Summit, hosted by Penny Pullan and Ruth Murray-Webster in the week beginning 11 July 2011. This five-day virtual Summit comprises a series of recorded interviews with risk experts. It’s a great way to hear some leading speakers on risk without leaving your home or office. David’s talk covers “Developing sustainable risk management“, discussing some of the main barriers and enablers to making risk management work, and how to maintain energy levels throughout the risk process.
Click here to register in advance for free, or Contact Penny for full details.
David Hillson is Author of Exploiting future Uncertaintly and Managing Risk in Projects, both published by Gower.
The trouble with definitions in the world of project management (and the PMBOK definitions are no exception) is what do you do when your project doesn’t fit the definitions of a project? On his website, David Hulett (Practical Schedule Risk Analysis and Integrated Cost-Schedule Risk Analysis) identifies two types of project that fall into this limbo: funding limited projects and schedule limited projects.
This is the second in the promised series of posts highlighting Gower’s publishing programme in a given topic area for the next 12 months. I won’t attempt to document all our new books but rather a give you a flavour of some highlights.
Project and Programme Management
Is the largest single list within our current publishing, on the basis of number of books published and commissioned. There are several continuing themes to our new books in 2011:
Project Performance and Resilience
Many of our new titles are designed to help you address a particular aspect of your organization’s project or programme management or develop your capability or resilience for project delivery. Some books, such as Emanuel Camilleri’s Project Success or Michael Cavanagh’s Second Order Project Management, go to the heart of those strategies and techniques that don’t just secure project or programme delivery but ensure value and commercial success too. Others, such as David Cleden’s Bid Writing for Project Managers or Integrated Cost-Schedule Risk Analysis, the follow up to David Hulett’s wonderful Practical Schedule Risk Analysis, provide expert help on one or more specific element within project management.
The Context of Projects and Programmes
We have a clutch of titles in preparation for 2011 or early 2012 that offer perspectives on the context within which projects and programmes are managed. There are a couple of titles from Professor Darren Dalcher’s highly regarded series, Advances in Project Management, that do this particularly well, for example: Haukur Ingi Jonasson and Helgi Thor Ingason’s Project Ethics, Ron Basu’s Managing Project Supply Chains and Spirituality and Project Management by Judith Neal and Alan Harpham.
Programme or Program Management
We have some strong titles to follow on from Michel Thiry’s 2010 Program Management. Roger and Adam Davies’ Value Management does a good job of connecting programmes with strategy and their intended outcomes and the first of two books from the author of The Lazy Project Manager, Peter Taylor, provides those people responsible for their project or programme management office with a very pragmatic guide to leadership: Leading Successful PMOs.
People in Projects and Programmes
The final clutch of three titles I want to highlight are those that cover human factors or, if you prefer, people in projects. There are two follow up titles in this group: Kaye Remington’s Leading Complex Projects (which follows her 2008 book Tools for Complex Projects) and Lynda Bourne’s Advising Upwards (which is a follow up to her 2009 book, Stakeholder Relationship Management) . There is also Sharon Di Mascia’s Using Psychology in Project Management, which is another book that very successfully draws in models and pragmatic advice from outside the usual project methodologies.
And, if I am allowed a last minute, wild card entry, let me sneak in a mention for Penny Pullan and Ruth Murray-Webster’s A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management from the Short Guides to Business Risk Series; very definitely appropriate for anyone involved in project risk management.
Please do offer any feedback on this programme of publishing or, if you wish, you can contact me with your own subject suggestions, requests or even book proposals.
Jonathan Norman, Publisher
Project Zone Network is organising a 2011 Project Zone Summit Series for PM Practitioners across Europe in Budapest, Berlin, Istanbul and Stockholm, each delivering 2 days of networking, learning and understanding the project-driven economy of the post-recession era. 
Gower Author David Hancock (Tame, Messy and Wicked Risk Leadership ) will be speaking in Budapest on April 28th and also as the opening Keynote on June 9th at ProjectRiskZone Vienna .
Dr David Hancock BEng CEng PhD MBA FIMMM FCIPD FRSA is Head of Project Risk at Transport for London and Visiting Fellow, Programme and Project Management at Cranfield School of Management
Further information www.projectzoneworld.com
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In other words, how do you know whether your risk management is good enough? An intriguing question which David Hillson explores in an article in the current issue of Project World Today. He suggests four levels of increasing capability … interesting to try and match your organization against the scale. David Hillson is author of Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude, Managing Group Risk Attitude, Managing Risk in Projects and Exploiting Future Uncertainty.
If you are a project sponsor, project board member or simply a decision maker, how much do you need to know about project risk management without turning yourself into a risk expert? David Hulett author of Practical Schedule Risk Analysis and the forthcoming Integrated Cost-Schedule Risk Analysis and one of the world’s leading commentators on project risk, offers a six-page guide to project risk management for executives, which would be a great place to start.
