Explicit Risk Management Research Articles

Project risk management in practice: the actuality of project risk management in organizations

PurposeThis paper explores how risks are managed in project practice beyond formalized risk management processes by applying the lens of actuality research to project risk management.Design/methodology/approachThe paper follows a qualitative multimethod research approach utilizing literature review, interviews, observations and document analysis. The paper is based on three case studies and one interview study in project organizations facing green transition challenges.FindingsLittle work exists to reveal how risk management is actually done by project practitioners, and why. Few studies report on contextual variation and consider confounding factors beyond a “one size fits all” formalized explicit risk management process, despite ample evidence that risks are managed outside the formal process. The study documents that informal and/or implicit risk management activities add significantly more value.Originality/valueThe paper contributes a literature review of research into the actuality of project risk management, a sense-making framework of how risks are managed in practice beyond the formal, explicit risk-management process by including informal and/or implicit risk management activities, an empirical study of risk-management practice highlighting that informal and/or implicit risk-management activities dominate in practice, a discussion of why risks are managed outside formalized, explicit process and a research agenda to enable the design of impactful project risk-management practices.

Explicit Risk Management in Agile Software Projects: Its Relevance and Benefits

Risk management is the systematic process of controlling risks and it is critical to the success of all software development projects. Agile software development methodologies by the inbuilt features utilized, control risks. However, this does not work for all cases of software development projects and supplementary means may need to be applied. This can be addressed by introducing an intentional and formal way of managing risks in the agile environment. Explicit risk management promises numerous benefits if properly implemented.
 This study intends to review and deduce based on the risks identified, the relevance and benefits of formally managing risks in agile software development projects. To achieve the aim of this study, the researcher reviewed risk management procedures in a typical agile setting as well as research that exposed the insufficiency of the inherent risk management process in agile projects and the identified risks. Related research papers from peer-reviewed journals and other reliable sources were reviewed to extract risks that occurred using agile without explicit risks management. The study inferred that some risks do exist that occurred with the introduction and use of the agile method itself. Also, there could be risks that surface when the project size exceeds a limit. Thus, managing risks explicitly will go a long way to address such risks. Consequently, the researcher was able to deduce the relevance and benefits of implementing explicit risk management in an agile software development project.
 This study showed that it is beneficial to incorporate formal risk management procedures in agile software development when mega software projects are being developed. However, to maintain the agility of the agile methods which happens to be a major benefit of the utilization of agile methods, more research is needed to further explore explicit risk management in the agile environment without violating the swiftness in the agile settings.

A socio-spatial index for risk management in shrimp aquaculture across landscapes

Area-based management has been promoted to mitigate risks beyond the boundaries of aquaculture farms. However, there remains no objective measure of the scale at which area-based management can most effectively control systemic production risks. There is also a lack of understanding of how the social connectivity between farmers operating in a given landscape or ‘area’ affects the shared risk perceptions and strategies of shrimp farmers. This paper addresses this gap by introducing a socio-spatial index (SSI) that enables the objective definition of area-based management based on the spatial extent of the social connectivity of shrimp farmers. The study explores how the SSI translates into individual and shared risk behaviour by using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that the SSI provides a generic measure for the socio-spatial extent of area-based aquaculture management and a specific means of determining the probability of farmers adopting shared mitigation strategies related to key risks like disease. The SSI provides the assessment and further development of spatially explicit risk management strategies for promoting responsible aquaculture production.

Risk Leveling - an organised risk management approach

Macro environments acquire ever more significance in the growing business worlds. Whereas the industrial enterprises assume greater controls in managing their internal environs, the evident responsibility of governments is to regulate the business surrounding risks, to optimise the external environments, and to deliver poses that are conducive to business. In such context, this paper presents a specialised approach – Risk Leveling – which embraces a focused risk management concept as well as an explicit risk management methodology. Risk Leveling accentuates upon organised and efficient consumption of available resources to achieve balanced risk postures in the business contagious environment. The ultimate intent of Risk Leveling is not only to cut the risks to business acceptability limits but to also ensure that mutual risk parities are conserved. Such intent is pursued through an organised procedure which employs a mix of analysis tools and philosophies including the AHP and the ALARP. By settling the contextual risks to business acceptability bounds, Risk Leveling aims to facilitate the regimes in regulating the macro business environments for wellbeing of business.

Integrating risk management in the innovation project

Purpose– While innovation has many similarities to other forms of projects it is characterised by a high failure rate and the need to stimulate creativity. More explicit risk management could help in achieving success in innovation projects. However, too much or inappropriate risk management might stifle the creativity that is core to innovation. So, what project risk management should be applied and where in the innovation project?Design/methodology/approach– A theoretical framework is proposed which combines the generic innovation process with project risk management. The framework was used to analyse the current attitudes to managing innovation risk in a series of companies.Findings– The decision points of the stage-gate innovation process model provide an effective interface for incorporating project risk concepts. The general concepts appear most relevant to innovation management though it is useful to customise them to emphasise the particular characteristics of innovation projects. The experience of using the resultant combined model in a number of diverse case studies indicates the relevance of the model in understanding attitudes towards risk management in innovation. The analysis of the case study companies suggested that risk management needs to be applied in differential manner: simple, unobtrusive techniques early in the innovation life cycle with more substantial, quantitative methods being considered for later stages.Research limitations/implications– It would be useful to extend this research by examining more case studies from other countries and industries.Practical implications– The combined innovation and risk management model provides a framework that diverse companies can appreciate. The framework offers a basis for discussing the most appropriate form of risk management in different innovation-based industries.Originality/value– Although there are many separate models for innovation and project risk management described in the literature, there is very little discussion about explicitly combining these theories. This paper aims to help fill this gap in the knowledge.

Understanding obstacles to the recognition of and response to dementia in different European countries: A modified focus group approach using multinational, multi-disciplinary expert groups

Experts from eight European countries (Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the disciplines of clinical psychology, general practice, geriatric medicine, old age psychiatry, medical sociology, nursing and voluntary body organisation met in 2003 to explore obstacles to recognition of and response to dementia in general practice within Europe. A modified focus group methodology was used in this exploratory process. Groups were conducted over a two-day period, with five sessions lasting 1–1.5 hours each. An adapted nominal group method was used to record themes arising from the group discussion, and these themes were used in a grounded theory approach to generate explanations for delayed recognition of and response to dementia. The overarching theme that arose from the focus groups was movement, which had three different expressions. These were: population movement and its consequences for localities, services and professional experience; the journey of the person with dementia along the disease process; and the referral pathway to access services and support. Change is the core issue in dementia care, with multiple pathways of change that need to be understood at clinical and organisational levels. Practitioners and people with dementia are engaged in managing emotional, social and physical risks, making explicit risk management a potentially important component of dementia care. The boundary between generalist and specialist services is a particular problem, with great potential for dysfunctionality. Stigma and ageism are variably distributed phenomena both within and between countries.

An industrial case study of implementing software risk management

Explicit risk management is gaining ground in industrial software development projects. However, there are few empirical studies that investigate the transfer of explicit risk management into industry, the adequacy of the risk management approaches to the constraints of industrial contexts, or their cost-benefit. This paper presents results from a case study that introduced a systematic risk management method, namely the Riskit method, into a large German telecommunication company. The objective of the case study was (1) to analyze the usefulness and adequacy of the Riskit method and (2) to analyze the cost-benefit of the Riskit method in this industrial context. The results of (1) also aimed at improvement and customization of the Riskit method. Moreover, we compare our findings with results of previous case studies to obtain more generalized conclusions on the Riskit method. Our results showed that the Riskit method is practical, adds value to the project, and that its key concepts are understood and usable in practice. Additionally, many lessons learned are reported that are useful for the general audience who wants to transfer risk management into new projects.