Conclusion

What this book calls ‘uncertainty management’ as approached by the PUMP pack is a significant reframing and extension of what is commonly referred to as ‘risk management’, quite different to some alternative views of project uncertainty management – Cleden (2009) for example. It does not just add to or supplement existing approaches to ‘risk management’ in a way that leaves existing perspectives unchanged. It widens what is feasible by starting in a different place, introducing more flexibility and power in basic ‘framing assumptions’.

Ultimately, all organizations that intend to make extensive use of uncertainty management need to develop a formal process framework that is tailored to the specific kinds of project and context which each organization faces. If an organization is starting from scratch, deployment of a PUMP pack is a good place to start. If an organization has existing risk and uncertainty management processes in place, there will be ‘legacy issues’ in the form of strong pressures to adapt from the existing basis, rather than start again. For related reasons, readers with some experience of risk and uncertainty management may wish to accommodate preferences and pressures for alternative processes. For example, some readers may want to use an alternative pr....all