JPL-D-15951, RISK MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK FOR JPL PROJECTS (01-OCT-1998)

JPL-D-15951, RISK MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK FOR JPL PROJECTS (01-OCT-1998)., The formal process of Risk Management at JPL is instituted to provide JPL Flight Projects with knowledge and control over the risk position of the project. In the past, JPL project implementation emphasized the maximizing of project success, and thus the risk management strategy was to drive any known risks to achieving the expected mission return to negligible levels. This resulted in extremely successful implementations, with achieved results often far surpassing requirements, and with associated high cost and high cost uncertainty. In the present environment of accomplishing NASA=s space exploration objectives, cost and cost control is an overriding project driver. Not all identified risks can be removed. The likelihood of surpassing mission requirements can be traded off against the risk of surpassing the budget constraints. Risk Management is a process used to balance the project risk position across all project resource areas (mission success, technical reserves, schedule and cost reserves), controlling the distribution and magnitude of the identified risks against the cost constraints while obtaining the best possible confidence in achieving high mission return.