Effective Opportunity Management For Projects

With step-by-step guidelines, this bestselling reference discusses the management of project opportunities by expanding the traditional risk management process to address opportunities alongside threats. It offers valuable tools and techniques that expose and capture opportunities, minimize threats, and deal with all types of uncertainty in your business and projects. Written by an experienced consultant and risk management specialist, this guide emphasizes that risk processes must cover both opportunities and threats if they are to assist in accomplishing project objectives and maximizing business benefits.

With step-by-step guidelines, this bestselling reference discusses the management of project opportunities by expanding the traditional risk management process to address opportunities alongside threats. It offers valuable tools and techniques that expose and capture opportunities, minimize threats, and deal with all types of uncertainty in your business and projects. Written by an experienced consultant and risk management specialist, this guide emphasizes that risk processes must cover both opportunities and threats if they are to assist in accomplishing project objectives and maximizing business benefits.

With step-by-step guidelines, this bestselling reference discusses the management of project opportunities by expanding the traditional risk management process to address opportunities alongside threats. It offers valuable tools and techniques that expose and capture opportunities, minimize threats, and deal with all types of uncertainty in your business and projects. Written by an experienced consultant and risk management specialist, this guide emphasizes that risk processes must cover both opportunities and threats if they are to assist in accomplishing project objectives and maximizing business benefits.

Effective risk and opportunity management is key to the successful delivery of any major engineering and construction project. This book looks at how all those involved can manage risk and capitalise on the opportunities that uncertainty present. The authors of this book highlight that uncertainties should be managed rather than avoided. This book will look at simple projects with a small team, to megaprojects where some hundreds of people are involved, and the consequences of delays or unforeseen costs. However, while the obvious risks can be planned for, the authors argue that it is often the opportunities in these situations that can have unexploited potential. This book is about opportunity management seen from the owner’s perspective. It will be an invaluable resource for those studying Engineering both undergraduate and postgraduate and set out ways in which projects should be managed from planning to completion. This book is also a great tool for those working in project management and the construction industry. While there are many books that demonstrate effective construction management, this book is the first of its kind to emphasise that there is opportunity in uncertainty, and possibility in the unexpected.

Since I wrote the Foreword for the second edition of this book, risk management processes have become much more widely used, but controversy about what should be done and how best to do it has grown. Managing risk is a risky business. Chapman and Ward provide an in-depth explanation of why it is important to understand and manage underlying uncertainty in all its forms, in order to realise opportunities more fully and enhance corporate performance. They show what best practice should look like. The implications go well beyond the conventional wisdom of project risk management, providing an enlightening new perspective. —Professor Tony M. Ridley Imperial College London, Past President, Institution of Civil Engineers Chris Chapman and Stephen Ward continue to educate the profession with this masterful exposition of the differences between, and the potentials for combinations of, risk, uncertainty and opportunity. Particularly welcome is the way they integrate this trio into the project lifecycle – the bedrock of project management control and organization. —Peter W.G. Morris Head of School and Professor of Construction and Project Management University College London Chris Chapman and Stephen Ward’s books on Project Risk Management have been an essential part of my repertoire for twenty years, and they are top of my recommended reading for the courses I do on that subject. In this book they have enhanced their previous work to focus on uncertainty management and emphasise more strongly opportunities for improving project performance, rather then just identifying what can go wrong. A structured process is an essential part of managing project uncertainty, and their process is one of the most powerful. This book will be added to my repertoire. —Rodney Turner Professor of Project Management, SKEMA Business School Lille A profoundly important book. With How to Manage Project Opportunity and Risk, Chris Chapman and Stephen Ward take a good thing and make it better. Members of the project management profession have been influenced for years by their insights into project risk management. With this latest instalment the authors demonstrate that risk and uncertainty needn’t be dreaded; in fact, the reverse side of the ‘risk coin’ has always been opportunity. My sincere appreciation to Chapman and Ward for turning this particular coin over and showing readers, academic and practitioner alike, the opportunity embedded in managing projects. —Jeffrey K. Pinto Andrew Morrow and Elizabeth Lee Black Chair in Management of Technology Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Penn State Erie

This second edition of the book reflects the authors' work to continually improve upon the model and to apply the methodology to a broader range of issues. The book includes: • An entirely new chapter on managing risk in programs, which is an important dimension in today's world of ever more complex initiatives • Updated material and methodology more closely aligned with relevant international standards • Emphasis on minimizing the threats and maximizing the opportunities to optimize achievement of your project goals Based on sound principles and best practices, this book guides any member of the project management team in conducting risk management in a real-world environment.

This is an update and expansion upon PMI's popular reference, The Practice Standard for Project Risk Management. Risk Management addresses the fact that certain events or conditions may occur with impacts on project, program, and portfolio objectives. This standard will: identify the core principles for risk management; describe the fundamentals of risk management and the environment within which it is carried out; define the risk management life cycle; and apply risk management principles to the portfolio, program, and project domains within the context of an enterprise risk management approach It is primarily written for portfolio, program, and project managers, but is a useful tool for leaders and business consumers of risk management, and other stakeholders.

With more than three decades of experience as a thought-leader and expert practitioner, PMI Fellow Dr. David Hillson shares practical insight into how upside risks can be identified, assessed, and managed as opportunities. After reviewing the benefits of identifying opportunities, the book steps through the opportunity identification and management process in detail, describing proven tools and techniques as well as specific tips to make them work in practice. The book places opportunity management in the context of traditional risk management, providing a familiar pathway that leads project managers to discover new benefits and successes. David Hillson is one of the foremost authorities on risk management. With his latest book he presents a strong case for managing opportunities. As with all of David’s books, the style of writing is engaging and easy to understand. There are many nuggets of wisdom in this book, as well as a hands-on approach to leveraging opportunity management as a way of improving project performance. — Cyndi Snyder Dionisio, PMI Fellow, Coronado CA, USA. (Chair of the PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition) I enjoyed reading this book, which is precise, clear, logical, and persuasive. The clarity of thought and expression explains why David is such a sought-after speaker. This book is a must-read for project risk practitioners, as well as for project professionals who are serious about addressing all the risks on their project, including the good ones. — Dr Dale Cooper, Cammeray NSW, Australia. (Director, Broadleaf Capital International) At last, a clear and valuable book linking both sides of the coin in risk management: threats and opportunities. David Hillson truly engages the reader on how to deal with these two types of risk in projects, sharing his wisdom and extensive experience in creating value from risk management. Anyone who has to manage risk in real-world projects should read this book to enhance their opportunity management skills. — Professor Salim Al-Harthi, Muscat, Oman. (Director of Risk Management Office, Sultan Qaboos University) It is vital for value creation in business and in life that we consider uncertainties that would have upside impacts on our objectives (opportunities), as well as downside impacts (threats). Business gets confused between opportunities where there is a binary choice to take or not, and true uncertain opportunities that can be seized, or left to chance. David has persevered in helping us understand this and this important book is a must-read for all leaders who want to create value through the proactive management of risk. — Dr Ruth Murray-Webster, Wakefield, UK. (Partner, Beyond the Deal LLP and Editor, APM Body of Knowledge, 7th Edition) As project managers, we always seem to focus on threats, negative risks. David Hillson, one of the foremost thought-leaders on risk management, explains approaches to identify and manage opportunities, positive risks and how this will help achieve project success. As with his previous books, David provides a structured approach with examples, tools, and techniques. An excellent resource for all project managers in today’s world. — Peter Monkhouse, Toronto ON, Canada. (Past Chair PMI Board of Directors)