During the course of any project there are several competing areas of focus. The areas of focus are generally in one of four categories:

The management of these competing areas of focus is known as risk management. As an example, a project’s budget may be met by specifying and installing equipment that does not live up to the performance specification set out by the design team. This action will however impact negatively on the quality of the project.  Likewise, the addition of additional tasks along the way in response to a client request or an unforeseen circumstance, while entirely possible, may impact the project time lines and budget.  These variances from expectation, their identification, recording and mitigation to the satisfaction of the project sponsor is the collective task of Risk Management.   Risk management involves several specific, purpose driven steps as noted in the graphic.