About This Course
In this new Self-Study course, Project Risk and Cost Analysis, we focus on risk in the context of project management, primarily in the area of risk’s effects on project costs, with emphasis on the many modern tools that help you and your organization quantify and manage project risk. You will learn how to perform a formal risk and cost analysis, apply the Earned Value Method to risk management, and adjust schedule and budget reserves appropriately for your project conditions.
We will follow the basic project risk management approach as laid out in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), 4th Edition, popularly known as the PMBOK® Guide, along with other sources listed in the bibliography and suggested reading. Risk cuts across many disciplines, not merely project management, and we strongly encourage you to read and study widely. In the wise words of the classic science fiction film Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), “We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.”
Michael S. Dobson, PMP, is an internationally known authority on project management and author of 22 previous books, including The Juggler’s Guide to Managing Multiple Projects (PMI, 1999). As principal of Dobson Solutions (www.dobsonsolutions.com) and the Sidewise Institute (www.sidewiseinsights.com), Michael consults, speaks, and trains on project management topics throughout the world. His clients range from the U.S. Navy’s nuclear propulsion program to Calvin klein Cosmetics. As an operating executive and project manager, Michael has been vice president, Discovery Software International; vice president, Games Workshop; and director of marketing and games development, TSR, Inc. He was part of the team that built the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in the 1970s. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Deborah S. Dobson, M.Ed., is assistant vice president/director of leadership and organizational development for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a 44,000-person Fortune 500 scientific, engineering, and technology applications company. She was previously a senior vice president with broadline foodservice distributor US Foodservice, and division vice president of GATX Terminals. She is the co-author of Enlightened Office Politics (AMACOM, 2001), Managing UP! (AMACOM, 2000), and Coping with Supervisory Nightmares (SkillPath, 1997), and most recently a contributing author to the International Society for Performance Improvement’s Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace (Volume 1: Instructional Design and Training Delivery) (Pfeiffer, 2010). She holds a master’s degree in Education from Loyola University Maryland and completed her undergraduate degree at Towson State University, also in Maryland.
The Dobsons live in Bethesda, Maryland.