Citation:
Elmar Kutsch, The effect of intervening conditions on the management of project risk, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2008, Volume 1, Issue 4, Pages 602-610
Abstract:
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main findings of a
successfully defended doctoral thesis that studied factors or interventions
causing the discrepancy between how adequate project risks should be managed and
how project risks are actually managed. Design/methodology/approach – The
approach involved interviews and a survey using questionnaires gathered data
from project managers about their experiences with project risk management
during two phases of fieldwork. The first phase included in-depth interviews
with information technology (IT) project managers in order to explore patterns
involving risk mediators and their influence on project risk management. A web-
based survey was used in the second phase for the purpose of testing these
patterns on a wider range of project managers. Findings – Specific risk-related
interventions strongly influence the effective use of project risk management:
project managers tended to deny, avoid, ignore risks and to delay the management
of risk. Risks were perceived as discomforting, not agreed upon. IT project
managers were unaware of risks and considered them to be outside their scope of
influence and preferred to let risks resolve themselves rather than proactively
engaging with them. As a consequence, factors such as the lack of awareness of
risks by IT project managers appeared to constrain the application of project
risk management with the result that risk had an adverse influence on the
outcome of IT projects. Practical implications – The underlying rational
assumptions of project risk management and the usefulness of best practice
project risk management standards as a whole need to be questioned because of
the occurrence of interventions such as the lack of information. IT project
managers should first prevent risk-related interventions from influencing the
use of project risk management. However, if this is not possible, they should be
prepared to adapt to risks influencing the project outcome. Originality/value –
The paper contradicts the myth of a “self-evidently” correct project risk
management approach. It defines interventions that constrain project manager’s
ability to mana