Risk Management: The Underrated Pillar of Project Success

Leadership Lessons Learned Program Management Risk Management

Akin Fadare

Community Champion

Ontario, Canada

RRisk Management is one of the underrated knowledge areas in the PMBOK. Why?

Posted: Sep 14, 2026 8:31 PM (Updated by moderator: Sep 15, 2026 7:24 AM)

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Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal

Akin, I wonder what we mean by “underrated” here. In the current PMBOK Guide Eighth Edition, Risk is one of only seven Performance Domains, so structurally the Guide gives it considerable prominence.

The more interesting question for me is whether risk is underrated in practice, or whether it is widely recognized but insufficiently integrated into decision-making.
An organization can have risk registers, reviews and reporting and still make consequential decisions without allowing uncertainty to materially influence commitments, priorities or responses.

Perhaps the real test of mature risk management is therefore not how much attention risk receives formally, but whether understanding uncertainty changes decisions while there is still meaningful opportunity to influence the exposure or the response.

Posted: Sep 15, 2026 7:16 AM

Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada

Akin -

I'd echo this - in thirty years of working with organizations, I found very few had effective project risk management approaches and this usually ties back to a lower level of organizational PM maturity.

Part of the challenge is that in many companies, firefighting and heroics are rewarded whereas preventative measures are not. Also, when budgets and timelines are constrained, it is a lot harder to sell senior decision makers on effort and money being spent to address uncertainties which may not be realized.

Kiron

Posted: Sep 15, 2026 7:40 AM

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Risk Management: The Underrated Pillar of Project Success

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