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Abstract

Large long-term projects with many stakeholders generally entail unforeseen risks and events that cannot, in principle, be predicted. Given the impracticality of pre-planning for every possible contingency, managers must react to inevitable disruptions, respond to unexpected events, update risk management plans, rescope the project, and problem-solve. Contrary to these all-too-common project occurrences, management continues to view the project as a deterministic process. The belief is that risk can be anticipated and projects executed as planned. The view presented in this paper is that pragmatic project management involves a practical balance between proactive risk management tools and reactive problem-solving tools.

Keywords

troubleshooting risk management crisis management problem-solving teams teamwork

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