7.15. Risk in Risk Management

Although there has been a great acceptance of risk management over the last decade, there is still room for improvement in the practice. As with any new idea, there have been multiple variations developed in application. The situation doesn't warrant a grand effort to standardize. However, the practitioner should be aware of the differences and the risks inherent in applying risk management. With any new concept, there will be a drive for both better theoretical understanding and application to new areas. One example in the case of risk management is the application to software. However, the resulting more detailed theoretical description of risk has created a conflicting set of definitions that can cause problems when merged with the original versions. One part of this paper looks at both views and seeks to explain what the differences are, their potential impact, and which way a project lead should go when faced with such a conflict in definitions.