Managing Project Risk: Questions Boards Should Be Asking

Directors' Briefing Series

With today's unforgiving economy, the topic of risk management of major programs, as well as the maturity of general project management within an organization, is dominating discussion among senior management, executive leadership and boards.

As a member of the board, it's your role to provide oversight on major projects. This means that you should understand the objectives of identified projects, monitor project implementation, review project progress and risk mitigation strategies on an ongoing basis. You should also monitor the metrics being used to measure a project's success. You can do this by developing and conducting appropriate project risk management activities.