Managing Project Risks Using a Cross Risk Breakdown Matrix

Projects are complex undertakings involving a unique set of tasks and activities conducted within a set of constraints to meet defined objectives. Risk in projects is also complex, arising from a wide range of sources and having a broad scope of possible effects on the project. Given these two dimensions of project complexity, the management of the relationship between project work and project risk is a key success factor for every project. This paper develops a method for understanding and managing risk on a project, using a combination of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS), resulting in the Risk Breakdown Matrix (RBM). An example is used to demonstrate how to measure risk concentration within the RBM using a ‘risk score’ based on the scale or size of individual risks. It is also possible to combine different levels of the WBS and RBS into a pyramidal structure where each of the layers is an RBM.