Risk And Project Management Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Risk And Project Management - Literature review Example Risk management is â€Å"the process of identifying, analyzing, and responding to business and project risk in order to minimize the consequences of adverse risk-based events† (Barkley, 2004, p. 3). According to Silvers (2010), the management of events is complex and replete with responsibilities. The process of preparing plans and executing them requires the participation of a good number of personnel, equipment and expertise, all of which must be gathered at one location in order to accomplish the set of activities that would complete the planned project. Events may be small in scale and limited in their complexity; others would be substantially more challenging, taking a much longer time to complete, and requiring the collaboration of many other talents working in conjunction with each other, the setting (location, time, weather, etc.) and against the constraints of a budget. Because of the multitude of unknown factors, risks abound in the execution of a project, from the p lanning phase until the last clean-up operation. There are financial risks that pertain to the business side, implying the possibility that the expected returns may not be realized. There are also the real risks of physical injury due to fortuitous events that, despite all precautions, occur unexpectedly. The job of events management is to assess and take cognizance of all these risks, so as to allocate for the possibility that they may happen and to allow the project team to address them. The importance of this topic is attested to by a substantial number of articles and researches that have been undertaken on the topic of project. This chapter shall review the available literature on the subject. Below are two diagrams depicting the risk management process, sequentially and then functionally. Project definition and project life cycle The risks attendant to events management are of the same nature of risks to which all projects are subjected to. A project is â€Å"an activity that has a beginning and an end which is carried out to achieve a particular purpose to a set quality within given time constraints and cost limits† (Chartered Management Institute). Essentially, events are projects with a tangible beginning and end and dedicated to attain one result, and therefore follow the project life cycle development. The project life cycle is a representation of â€Å"the linear progression of a project, from defining the project through making a plan, executing the work, and losing out the project† (Verzuh, 2008, p. 23). There are numerous ways of depicting the life cycle of a project, one of which is presented in the following diagram. http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/century21/figure3.gif The risks of doing business There are many types of projects that have different objectives; whether they are philanthropic or for profit, there is certainly a cost factor involved that places a constraint on the manner the business is run. At best, the project s hould earn a decent return for the organizers where the aim is fund raising or the furtherance of a business. At the least, the costs incurred must be within the limits set by the sponsors. In any case, uncertainties in the events surrounding the project’s execution may impact in the form of higher than expected costs or lower than expected revenues. According to Ibrahim (2010), it is possible to introduce some diversification in order for events