Human Risk Factor Essay

Projects and the Human Risk Factor

Almost every project has some degree of risk and project managers strive to keep the human risk factor minimized and in check. According to Hillson and Webster, Risk management requires human judgement and therefore cannot be managed by machines or robots (2016). Both humans and machines are capable of analyzing information, but humans are still necessary to evaluate the information and make a decision based on their best judgement. The most well thought out and planned project can be adversely effected by the human risk factor and the decisions made by individuals involved with the project. The human factor is a major element in risk management because the project revolves around the people involved. Murthy and Sreenivas state that the people are the core of project management in which all other processes such as scope, time, cost, and quality revolve around (2014). The human risk factor is unavoidable since the actions of the people involved in the project cannot always be predicted or anticipated. Project managers can utilize risk response planning such a mitigate, which reduces the likelihood the risk will occur according to Meredith, Mantel, and Shafer (2014). Project managers can help mitigate the human risk factor by bringing individuals on board for a project that have a proven track

A project manager might have to accept the risk of someone who has never been involved in a project but needs to realize that by doing so that certain aspects of the project could be put at risk. In my current position I have witnessed Individuals who have never worked on complex projects make rushed decisions in an effort to keep a project from derailing only to later learn that the decision they made was incorrect and detrimental to the project and has now caused the project to overrun on cost and