ECSS-M-ST-80C, SPACE PROJECT MANAGEMENT: RISK MANAGEMENT (31-JUL-2008)

ECSS-M-ST-80C, SPACE PROJECT MANAGEMENT: RISK MANAGEMENT (31-JUL-2008)., Risks are a threat to project success because they have negative effects on the project cost, schedule and technical performance, but appropriate practices of controlling risks can also present new opportunities with positive impact. The objective of project risk management is to identify, assess, reduce, accept, and control space project risks in a systematic, proactive, comprehensive and cost effective manner, taking into account the project’s technical and programmatic constraints. Risk is considered tradable against the conventional known project resources within the management, programmatic (e.g. cost, schedule) and technical (e.g. mass, power, dependability, safety) domains. The overall risk management in a project is an iterative process throughout the project life cycle, with iterations being determined by the project progress through the different project phases, and by changes to a given project baseline influencing project resources. Risk management is implemented at each level of the customer‐supplier network. Known project practices for dealing with project risks, such as system and engineering analyses, analyses of safety, critical items, dependability, critical path, and cost, are an integral part of project risk management. Ranking of risks according to their criticality for project success, allowing management attention to be directed to the essential issues, is a major objective of risk management. The project actors agree on the extent of the risk management to be implemented in a given project depending on the project definition and characterization. This Standard defines the principles and requirements for integrated risk management on a space project; it explains what is needed to implement a project–integrated risk management policy by any project actor, at any level (i.e. customer, first level supplier, or lower level suppliers). This Standard contains a summary of the general risk management process, which is subdivided into four (4) basic steps and nine (9) tasks. The risk management process requires information exchange among all project domains, and provides visibility over risks, with a ranking according to their criticality for the project; these risks are monitored and controlled according to the rules defined for the domains to which they belong. The fields of application of this Standard are all the activities of all the space project phases. A definition of project phasing is given in ECSS‐M‐ST‐10. This standard may be tailored for the specific characteristics and constraints of a space project in conformance with ECSS‐S‐ST‐00.