Standards for Risk Management

Risk is present in our everyday life and risk management is universal but in most circumstances an unstructured activity, based on common sense, relevant knowledge, experience and instinct. Project management has evolved over recent years into a mature professional discipline characterized by a formalized body of knowledge and the definition of systematic processes for the execution of a project.All these and possibly other factors as well, have resulted in growing numbers of books, articles and conferences being devoted to project risk management. This level of activity has also led to the development of a number of standards that prescribe for and advise organisations on the best way to manage their risks. Every meaningful standard for project management contains project risk management as its important part. The goal of this essay is to present and compare the main standards for project risk management that are currently available today. Four international standards recognized world-wide were selected for comparison: PMI, PRINCE2, IPMA, ISO 31000 and JEC 62198. Chapter 1 introduces the article, basic principles and concepts of risk management. Chapter 2 consists of brief recapitulation of the selected standards in a manner that facilitates their comparison. This is followed by a comparison in chapter 3 including discussion regarding the commonalities among the standards. Chapter 4 contains the conclusion.