Chapter 9

Clarify ownership

It is an equal failing to trust everybody and to trust nobody.

—18th-century English proverb.

Making sure that every relevant source of uncertainty and response option has an appropriate owner is recognized as basic good practice – in principle. In practice this worthy ambition is rarely achieved. One obvious reason is a failure to identify particular sources of uncertainty and response options early enough in the project lifecycle. A second reason is a failure to implement an effective allocation of ownership to the parties involved in a project which works for both identified and unidentified sources of uncertainty and response options. A third reason is a failure to achieve an alignment of objectives of the relevant parties. A fourth is a failure to identify key relationships between sources of uncertainty, response options and ....