Noun

Singular risk management

Plural uncountable

risk management (uncountable)

1. The process of determining the maximum acceptable level of overall risk to and from a proposed activity, then using risk assessment techniques to determine the initial level of risk and, if this is excessive, developing a strategy to ameliorate appropriate individual risks until the overall level of risk is reduced to an acceptable level.
   • 2002: InsTech.info, LLC, A short history of risk management: 1900 - 2002 at [1]

     1921: Frank Knight publishes Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, a book that becomes the keystone in the risk management library.

   • a2006: University of Surrey website, Risk Management History read at [2]

     Even if it has deeper foundations, risk management, as it is practiced today, is essentially a post-1960s phenomenon.

   • 2006: BBC News website, How do you judge offenders' risk? read at [3]

     Where release is recommended, a "risk management plan" outlining how the offender will be managed in the community and detailing recommended licence conditions, is also submitted.

Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events. Risks can come from uncertainty in financial markets, project failures, legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and disasters as well as deliberate attacks from an adversary. Several risk management standards have been developed including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Science and Technology, actuarial societies, and ISO standards. Methods, definitions and goals vary widely according to whether the risk management method is in the context of project management, security, engineering, industrial processes, financial portfolios, actuarial assessments, or public health and safety.

The strategies to manage risk include transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk.

Certain aspects of many of the risk management standards have come under criticism for having no measurable improvement on risk even though the confidence in estimates and decisions increase.