Risk Analysis & Contingency Planning Flashcards

A project team identifies a risk that has a high probability of occurring but decides to accept it because the cost of mitigation exceeds the cost of the delay. This is an example of:

Answer: Passive risk acceptance

Passive acceptance means no proactive response is planned—the team simply acknowledges the risk and deals with consequences if it occurs, often appropriate when mitigation costs exceed impact costs.

When integrating schedule risk analysis with cost risk analysis, which metric BEST represents the combined impact on project value?

Answer: Joint cost-schedule probability distributions from integrated simulation

Integrated cost-schedule risk simulation produces joint probability distributions that reflect realistic dependencies between schedule delays and cost overruns.

A risk owner is assigned to a specific schedule risk. What is the PRIMARY responsibility of the risk owner?

Answer: Implementing and monitoring the agreed risk response strategy

The risk owner is accountable for executing the planned risk response and monitoring the risk for changes in status or effectiveness of the response.

A scheduler reviewing the project risk register notices that several risk responses have been implemented, but the risks have not been reassessed. What is the MOST significant problem with this situation?

Answer: Residual risks after response implementation may remain unidentified and unplanned

Without reassessing risks after response implementation, residual risks—those remaining after the response—may go unidentified, leaving the schedule exposed.

Which technique involves adding buffer time at the end of a project or phase to protect the overall project delivery date from the accumulation of individual activity uncertainties?

Answer: Project buffer in Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)

In CCPM, a project buffer is placed at the end of the critical chain to absorb variability that propagates through the schedule, protecting the final delivery date.

A project team is conducting a risk workshop. The facilitator uses an anonymous voting technique to prevent dominant personalities from skewing the group's risk probability assessments. This technique is called:

Answer: Delphi technique

The Delphi technique uses anonymous, iterative rounds of expert input to build consensus on risk probability and impact estimates without groupthink bias.

A PMI-SP practitioner is presenting schedule risk analysis results to a steering committee. The committee asks what the 'confidence level' of the schedule means. The BEST explanation is:

Answer: The probability that the project will be completed by a specified date

Confidence level in schedule risk analysis represents the statistical probability—derived from simulation—that the project will complete on or before a specified target date.