Solving for Project Risk Management – Publication Day!

Today is the official release day for Solving for Project Risk Management: Understanding the Critical Role of Uncertainty in Project Management! I began writing this book in 2014 by drafting a Table of Contents. Much of the content in the book is based on conference papers I wrote between 2008 and 2019. My conference papers tend to be technical and often have numerous equations. I decided in writing this book to make it accessible to a broader audience. I took out the equations and replaced them with stories, graphs, and concrete examples. It is intended to be a hands-on, practical book that will benefit both project managers and estimators.

Although 2020 has been a challenging year for many and people will remember it as the year of the pandemic, I will always think of it as the year of my first book. I signed a deal with McGraw-Hill to publish my book in mid-March, right around the time my family and I decided to lock down and stay in. As McGraw-Hill required me to broaden the scope of my book, I was able to make a significant re-write of my draft manuscript because I was stuck at home for six weeks. If you have ordered a hard copy and are in the United States, hopefully you will receive your copy today. If you have not bought your copy yet, check out the book’s Amazon page or the Barnes and Noble page. You can also watch a 10-minute video overview on YouTube and read Chapter 1 for free. If you have purchased the book and like it, I would appreciate a short review on Amazon, Google, or Goodreads.

I was honored to received some great endorsements for Solving for Project Risk Management, including one from Norm Augustine! As it turns out, even though he is retired he still has a Lockheed Martin email address, and he reads and responds to his messages –

“Christian Smart has produced a brilliantly researched, highly readable book that should be of interest to everyone who gets out of bed in the morning—that is, everyone who encounters risk.  I only wish I had read it earlier in my career…it would have saved my employers millions of dollars.” Norm Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin and author of Augustine’s Laws

“This book is for all who work in the project and risk management communities, focused on engineering today’s challenging systems. The reader is offered a well-written and balanced discussion on the principles of managing risk and uncertainty, amplified by the author’s significant experience as a leader and practitioner in the field. The book artfully presents complex concepts in easy to read fashion and is a valuable contribution to this body of literature.” Paul R. Garvey, Ph.D., Division Chief Engineer, The MITRE Corporation and author of Probability Methods for Cost Uncertainty Analysis

“Christian Smart has written a timely and readable book on a timely and important topic. He clearly identifies cost and schedule uncertainties that are intrinsic to program management, and, importantly, how to address and manage them. This book should be on every program manager’s must-read list” — Daniel Nussbaum, Ph.D., Naval Postgraduate School, author of Cost Estimation: Methods and Tools

“Once you have realised that Risk Management is the formal communications methodology for identifying, quantifying and mitigating the threats and embracing the opportunities within your projects; the next wise step is to analyse them. There is no better person to explain that analysis and Solve for Project Risk Management than Christian Smart. I would encourage all Project professionals to study this book.” — Dale Shermon, Qinetiq Fellow, Council member and Fellow of the Association of Cost Engineers (FACostE), author of Association for Project Management Body of Knowledge (7th edition) and editor of Systems Cost Engineering.

“As a leader in the Integrated Program Management community, I believe that we often lack the understanding and awareness of the impact that risk and uncertainty have on a program. As such we are often at a loss on how to handle risk and the mitigations that can be applied.  Dr. Christian Smart brings the reader into his world by helping them understand the intricacies and nuances of risk management. This book is a chat with a leading expert in the field who will make you feel comfortable with risk complexities and the best approach to manage them.” Neil Albert, CEO of NFA Consulting, LLC and Vice Chair of the Integrated Program Management Division of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) 

“Dr. Christian Smart is an acknowledged leader in the field of project risk management.  In this book he introduces and develops sophisticated concepts in ways that are accessible to every reader from expert to novice.  His broad experience and deep understanding of this field are on display as he illuminates events that people face in their daily lives. The book helps us better understand current issues that have a risky content – and reading Dr. Smart’s book we realize that most of life can be understood from a risk standpoint.“ David T. Hulett, Ph.D., FAACE, author of Practical Schedule Risk Analysis and Integrated Cost-Schedule Risk Analysis

“A no-holds barred book on understanding and managing risk.  Solving for Risk Management conveys the ugly truth about cost and schedule risk and offers effective ways to evaluate and manage risks.  Christian Smart tells a story that’s easy to read and understand, a must read for those responsible for managing complex projects or telling project managers what they absolutely need to know about the cost and schedule risks of their projects.” Rick Collins, Technical Director of Technomics, Inc. and President of the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association.

 “I have long admired Christian Smart’s wisdom and ability to explain concepts to project managers and others that need real understanding and solutions.  This book exemplifies his ability to teach difficult concepts.  It’s humor and delightful stories provide decades of project management wisdom, lessons learned, and actionable information in a must-read way. I will quote this book for years to come.”  Dan Galorath, Founder, Galorath incorporated and author of Software Sizing, Estimation, and Risk Management: When Performance Is Measured, Performance Improves.

“All projects have uncertainties and Solving for Project Risk Management provides Project Managers with the tools needed to identify key vulnerabilities and take steps to mitigate them before they can jeopardize the success of the undertaking.  The author offers the background and history of how risks impact the cost, schedule and technical success of ventures, how human tendencies cause us to overlook risks and be over confident and, most importantly, provides workable ways to assess risk, calculate confidence levels and manage risks in order to enable project success.  This is the best book on this topic that I have seen—it should be required reading for all Project Managers!” — Joseph Hamaker, PhD, Former NASA Senior Executive and Senior Cost Analyst with Galorath Federal Inc.  

“I have been lucky to know Christian since the early days of his exemplary career. Christian is a relentless innovator that has used his Applied Mathematics PhD to develop a plethora of useful models. No doubt all professionals in cost estimating will welcome the publication of this book summing up all Christian’s research on risk. Many of the concepts addressed in this book have been appraised by our professional cost estimating community as testified by the numerous Best Paper Awards collected over the years.

Christian’s research work is rigorously supported with facts and numbers. It results in solid work that the reader may use with confidence.

The readers will find powerful tools in this reference book to handle projects cost and schedule risks.

More than any other, Christian Smart will have brought us the possibility to open our eyes and to conduct our large projects in a more intelligent and effective way. I hope that everyone will take this chance.” — Herve’ Joumier, Senior Advisor to the European Space Agency