(Not Enough) Risky Business

Tom's latest eBook has been released on Amazon: "The 7 Myths of IT Integrations". Tom is also a Program Director for a large Midwest corporation and has been an adjunct faculty member at Walsh College. He has managed global web initiatives, data center moves and large multi-million dollar programs.

  Risk Management  

“There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.” -Donald Rumsfeld

Set aside, for a moment, the politics and the late-night humor that surrounded Donald Rumsfeld’s quote. Hidden in the heart of the statement is actually a good idea that was trying to come out. Too many times on projects, major problems or sudden setbacks occur because something happened that we--quite simply--never saw coming.

Many times, planning for something that would “never happen in a thousand years” on our project seems a pointless effort and an honest waste of time. We expect things to run smoothly, and if a big problem presents itself then “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” But what if we could train ourselves to be better at looking for those potholes? What if we could anticipate an oil-valve blowout in the Gulf or a near-collapse of the financial system? Would that make us better project managers?

All of this comes down to educating ourselves on how to spot one thing: risk. Defined as the potential for loss or harm, the word risk is comes from the Greek word “rhizikon” (meaning “root, stone”) and came to …

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