The success of Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis (CSRA) begins and ends with the very first stage of the process; the collation of data inputs. Quite simply, the quality of the data - covering cost, schedule, uncertainties and risks – that project teams put in, will determine the quality of the risk insights they get out. By taking the time to get this initial stage right, project teams can make better-informed decisions and improve project outcomes.
The majority of project teams conduct cost and schedule risk analysis (CSRA) for one simple reason – more realistic information = better business decisions.
Revealing the likely impact of individual risks on a project’s cost and time to complete, CSRA is a valuable tool in every project team’s toolbox. It ultimately enables organisations to turn their project risk data into meaningful messages that inform project teams, guide their decision-making and engage them in a way that many traditional project management techniques simply cannot.
Donna Festorazzi is Head of Programme Risk Management at Stantec and an internationally experienced risk management professional, with a multidisciplinary background. She believes that risk management insights should empower project teams to optimise delivery performance, rather than purely facilitate project-approval processes.
Albert ‘Mac’ McMillan is a project management specialist with more than 40 years’ experience. In this Q&A, he talks about how a failing project can be turned around with the help of some timely and effective risk management.
Why do so many projects miss their duration and cost estimates? There are many factors, but a lack of integration between cost and duration could be leading you down the wrong path.
Administering a quality quantitative schedule risk analysis (QSRA) on a live project is no simple task. An indisputable constraint for creating a robust QSRA is the time available to validate and probe your model for insights. As an experienced Project Risk Manager, I have certainly witnessed ample timescales to create, test, and provide risk models slip away.
New Insight: Performing Integrated Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis on a Multi-Billion Dollar Project
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) tackles some of America’s greatest science and technology challenges, including strengthening the country’s energy resiliency and protecting national security. By utilizing their expertise in chemistry, earth sciences, and data analytics, PNNL’s researchers have taken great steps in innovating and pioneering a safer, cleaner, world.
Mitigation analysis is a massive part of the risk analysis process, and Safran Risk makes it easier and less time consuming to conduct. It’s a huge improvement over OPRA, and this blog will explore why.
Conveying complex risk data to stakeholders and the C-suite – and making the data compelling – is often a challenge for project managers. Thankfully, Safran Risk has tools to help achieve this.
Correlation is often crucial to the risk model. It helps analysts understand the often-complex relationships between events and the risks that can affect them. More than that, it plays an integral role in counteracting the effects of the Central Limit Theorem (CLT).
