Polaris: Lessons in Risk Management

Risk management is one of the most important practices that a manager can employ to help drive a successful outcome from a project. Good risk management allows organizations to proactively respond to risks. Unfortunately, many managers believe risk management to be too time consuming or too complicated. Some find it to be shrouded in mystery. This book is designed to demystify risk management, explaining introductory and advanced risk management approaches in simple language. To illustrate the risk management concepts and techniques, this book uses real-life examples from a very influential project that helped change the course of world history -- the project that designed and built the Polaris missile and accompanying submarine launch system that became a key deterrent to a Soviet nuclear attack during the Cold War. The Polaris design and construction project employed many risk management approaches, inventing one that is still widely used today. Containing a foreword by James R. Snyder, one of the founders of the Project Management Institute (PMI), this book is structured to align with the risk management approach described in PMI's the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide).