Planning for Risk in IT Projects

by Kerry F. Gentry

Fundamentally, management has only three tasks: to set objectives, to manage the risks to those objectives, and to accept accountability for the results of those first two tasks. That being said, what is a risk? It is simply the probability, however small, of a specific event occurring that is harmful to an individual or organization. Given the infinite number of such events that surround every endeavor by every individual and enterprise, it is clear that freedom from risk, like infinity itself, is nonexistent in our real world of experience. It is equally self-evident that the risk environment is unique for every endeavor, individual, and enterprise. Since the seminal task of selecting objectives must include an appraisal of their associated risks, and control of those risks is the other predominant responsibility of management, it is reasonable to identify risk planning as the cornerstone upon which a successful enterprise is built.