Strategic Project Risk Appraisal and Management

Citation

Harris, E. (2011), "Strategic Project Risk Appraisal and Management", Strategic Direction, Vol. 27 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2011.05627dae.001

Strategic Project Risk Appraisal and Management

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Strategic Direction, Volume 27, Issue 4

Elaine HarrisGower Publishing Ltd(Series: Advances in Project Management)2009ISBN: 978-0-566-08848-3126 pp.

Having been asked to review another text in Gower’s Advances in Project Management series, my interest was piqued to the point where I wanted to know more about the series itself. Since the endplates of the book yielded little information other than a snippet about the series editor (Professor Darren Dalcher) I followed the directions to the publisher’s website www.gowerpublishing.com/advancesinprojectmanagement where I discovered that Elaine Harris’ book is the second in the series to be published so far in 2009 (see earlier review of David Cleden’s book Managing Project Uncertainty in Vol. 4 No. 2 of this journal). Other series titles planned for publication over the coming two years include: Developing Project Leadership (Donnie McNicol); Strategy-oriented Approach to Project Implementation (Mihály Görög); Project Implementation Strategy for Outsourced Projects (Mihály Görög); Portfolio Benefit Management (Gunes Sahillioglu); Project Requirements (Steve Barron); Managing Value in Projects (Michel Thiry); Auditing and Reviewing Projects and Programs (Martina Huemann); and – most intriguing – Tame, Messy and Wicked Risk Management (David Hancock). So, two down, eight to go, and much to look forward to in this series, methinks.

The risk management literature has long dwelt on the detail minutiae of risk and risk management. Strategic level risk management has been overly neglected. It is refreshing therefore, to find a book clearly aimed at strategic aspects of project risk appraisal; and to discover that future titles in the series promise to maintain this focus and extend it into other areas of strategic project management.

The approach and format of this book is different to that taken earlier by Cleden in Managing Project Uncertainty. Over seven chapters he deals with different topics relating to uncertainty and its management. Harris offers eleven chapters in her book, which is separated into three parts. The first part, “Background to project risk appraisal” contains just two chapters describing the context and a process model for strategic appraisal, and providing a trio of strategic risk appraisal techniques based upon a group cognition perspective of personal construct theory. I would have like to see a more extensive explanation of the theory and techniques, but the shortcoming is not serious as, in part two (“Strategic project risk case illustrations”), the author uses a case-based approach over seven chapters to demonstrate the techniques (Nominal Group Technique; Repertory Grid Technique; and Cognitive Mapping) for different types of projects categorised as business development projects; systems development projects; new site projects; new product development projects; business acquisitions; compliance projects; and event management. Such an array of project types is rarely encountered in one project management book, and I was concerned lest the author was offering such diversity as a substitute for elucidation – after all, we do tend to promote a generic understanding of project management these days. I also wondered if demonstrating the same techniques repeatedly over seven chapters was wise: would “techno-fatigue” set in for the reader and the learning experience become counter-productive? On balance, I believe my fears are groundless but, before explaining why, part three of the book (“Project risk management post-decision”) should be dealt with. In Chapter 10, Harris offers further wisdom about the different types of projects, together with an appropriate strategic focus for each type. She accompanies this with suggestions about suitable risk management strategies in each case, and how these strategies might be monitored and controlled during project execution. Finally, Chapter 11 contains her reflections upon post-project review and risk knowledge capture, thus completing the essential learning cycle of risk management. In common with most books about risk management, a threat risk perspective dominates, but opportunity risk is not entirely ignored as the author subtly shows how project risk attributes can lead to opportunity exploitation in some circumstances.

In terms of my “4Cs” review criteria, this book is concise and cogent, but perhaps slightly less clear and complete than its predecessor in the series. The sub-titles for each part are somewhat clumsy, and the writing style occasionally lacks precision. It was irritating to find references to colour shading in the text explanations of the many cognitive mapping diagrams included in the book; when the figures themselves are presented only in greyscales. If the publishing budget could not stretch to colour printing, then cross-hatching with an explanatory key for each figure would have provided a clearer alternative format. The case studies would have benefited from more complete background information, particularly since understanding the context is the essential preliminary step in an effective project risk management process. Whether or not the paucity of description for the case studies has arisen for reasons of commercial sensitivity (such a pity this crass cop-out has eviscerated so many valuable learning resources), or as a result of editorial action to keep the book within page limits set for the series is not clear, but inevitably rich project nuances have been lost. Nevertheless, this is still a good book, and recommended for students and practitioners. It certainly meets the objectives for the series in “[…] providing short, state of play guides to the main aspects of the new emerging applications of project management […]”. Oh, before I forget, it’s the pedagogic value of this book that soothes my fears about the format. After all, what better than being able to tell a syndicate group of PM students: “Just re-read Chapters 1, 2 and 5 and then apply them in your relocation project assignment”? Bliss for the busy academic!

Reviewed by Peter J. Edwards, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

This review was originally published in International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2010