Project Risk and Recovery Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Project Managers, Programme Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PM-052

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience contributing to, leading or supporting projects and should understand basic project concepts such as scope, schedule, budget, stakeholders and milestones.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Projects rarely fail because of one isolated event. They drift into difficulty when weak assumptions, unmanaged dependencies, delayed decisions, supplier issues, scope pressure and emerging threats are not recognised early enough. Once performance deteriorates, project leaders must stabilise delivery, protect critical outcomes, establish credible forecasts and regain stakeholder confidence without creating further disruption.

This course develops practical capability in project risk management and recovery planning. Participants build risk registers that support decisions, apply qualitative and quantitative analysis, define proportionate responses, set early-warning indicators and establish escalation thresholds. The course also examines recovery management: diagnosing the causes of delay or cost growth, assessing recovery options, resetting baselines, managing corrective action and communicating difficult messages to sponsors, customers, suppliers and delivery teams.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with facilitated case work, group analysis, simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with realistic scenarios such as a delayed technology implementation, a contractor-led infrastructure project and a regulated service change. They leave with a reusable project risk and recovery pack containing a risk register structure, assessment model, response plan, recovery diagnostic, recovery roadmap and stakeholder communication framework.

The course is designed for experienced project professionals who already contribute to planning or delivery and now need stronger methods for managing uncertainty, resolving troubled projects and restoring controlled delivery.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct a decision-ready risk register using cause-event-effect statements and accountable ownership
  • Facilitate structured risk identification using risk breakdown structures, pre-mortems and dependency analysis
  • Assess project threats and opportunities using probability-impact scoring, risk exposure and sensitivity analysis
  • Model schedule and cost uncertainty using three-point estimates, Monte Carlo concepts and contingency logic
  • Select proportionate risk responses using avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance and exploitation strategies
  • Design early-warning indicators, escalation thresholds and risk reporting for project governance forums
  • Diagnose project distress using performance data, root-cause analysis and recovery option appraisal
  • Lead a project recovery plan with revised baselines, corrective actions and stakeholder communications

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Improved ability to identify material risks before they become delivery issues
  • Greater confidence challenging unrealistic assumptions, dates and contingency levels
  • Practical methods for leading difficult recovery conversations with senior stakeholders
  • Stronger judgement when choosing between mitigation, acceptance, transfer and escalation
  • Reusable documents for risk reviews, recovery planning and project status reporting

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of threats to cost, schedule, quality and operational readiness
  • More consistent risk registers with accountable owners, actions and escalation criteria
  • Better use of contingency through evidence-based exposure and uncertainty analysis
  • Faster intervention when project performance indicators show emerging distress
  • Credible recovery plans that clarify decisions, funding needs and delivery trade-offs

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can establish risk governance that links uncertainty, accountability and project decision-making.

  • ISO 31000 principles linked to project objectives, constraints and decision rights
  • Risk appetite, tolerance and thresholds distinguished for project governance
  • PMBOK risk processes mapped to project lifecycle gates
  • Risk breakdown structures aligned with WBS, contracts and organisational categories
  • Assumptions, constraints and dependencies converted into traceable risk statements
  • Risk ownership assigned through RACI, escalation paths and authority limits

Participants can identify material project risks and document them in an auditable register.

  • Structured risk workshops using prompts, pre-mortems and facilitated questioning
  • Cause-event-effect statements written with observable triggers and consequences
  • PESTLE, SWOT and checklist analysis used without duplicate risk entries
  • Interface risks identified across suppliers, regulators, operations and technology teams
  • Lessons learned converted into risks rather than untested historical assertions
  • Risk register fields specified for auditability, action tracking and reporting

Participants can prioritise risks using consistent scoring criteria and exposure analysis.

  • Probability-impact matrices calibrated against agreed project tolerance thresholds
  • Inherent and residual risk ratings separated after planned controls
  • Risk exposure calculated using likelihood, impact and time proximity
  • Urgency, detectability and velocity assessed alongside probability and impact
  • Sensitivity analysis identifies assumptions driving high-priority risk ratings
  • Heat maps used carefully without concealing material risk interdependencies

Participants can apply quantitative methods to estimate schedule and cost uncertainty.

  • Three-point estimates developed using optimistic, most-likely and pessimistic values
  • PERT distributions used to estimate uncertain activity durations
  • Monte Carlo simulation concepts applied to schedule confidence ranges
  • Cost risk models distinguish contingency, management reserve and budget
  • Correlation between risks considered before aggregating potential financial exposure
  • Confidence levels presented clearly for sponsor funding and date decisions

Participants can select, document and manage proportionate responses to project risks.

  • Avoidance, mitigation, transfer and acceptance matched to threat characteristics
  • Exploit, enhance, share and accept strategies applied to opportunities
  • Response actions defined with owners, deadlines, costs and completion evidence
  • Bow-tie analysis connects preventive controls, events and recovery controls
  • Contingency plans triggered by defined indicators rather than vague concern
  • Residual risks escalated when response authority exceeds project limits

Participants can monitor changing exposure and report decision-relevant risk information.

  • Key risk indicators designed from measurable leading and lagging signals
  • Risk review cadence aligned with delivery phases and governance meetings
  • Trend analysis distinguishes stable exposure from deteriorating control effectiveness
  • Earned Value Management signals interpreted alongside risk register evidence
  • Risk burndown charts used to track treatment progress and residual exposure
  • Escalation reports present decisions required, options, consequences and deadlines

Participants can diagnose project distress using evidence rather than assumptions or blame.

  • Distress indicators include missed milestones, forecast variance and unresolved dependencies
  • Project health checks examine scope, schedule, cost, quality and stakeholder confidence
  • Root-cause analysis uses five whys, fishbone diagrams and evidence trails
  • Critical path review identifies activities driving forecast completion dates
  • Schedule quality checks test logic links, constraints, float and status integrity
  • Recovery triage separates urgent stabilisation actions from longer-term corrective work

Participants can develop a credible recovery strategy with realistic options and commitments.

  • Recovery objectives defined through required outcomes, constraints and non-negotiables
  • Option appraisal compares scope reduction, resequencing, acceleration and resource changes
  • Schedule compression evaluated through crashing, fast tracking and dependency risks
  • Recovery roadmaps sequence stabilisation, replanning, execution and assurance activities
  • Revised baselines document approved scope, dates, costs and performance measures
  • Corrective action plans assign accountable owners, milestones and verification criteria

Participants can communicate recovery status, decisions and trade-offs with credibility.

  • Stakeholder maps identify decision makers, affected groups and influential blockers
  • Recovery communications distinguish facts, forecasts, assumptions and unresolved issues
  • Sponsor briefings frame options through consequences, decisions and recommendation rationale
  • Supplier recovery meetings address obligations, evidence, remedies and revised commitments
  • Difficult messages delivered using clear status, impact, action and support requests
  • Governance forums track recovery commitments, decisions, risks and benefit protection

Participants can embed strengthened controls and create an application plan for future projects.

  • Post-recovery assurance tests whether corrective actions remain effective over time
  • Control plans connect risks, indicators, reviews, owners and escalation routes
  • Lessons learned capture decision failures, control gaps and useful interventions
  • Risk maturity assessments identify priority improvements to project control practices
  • Assurance reviews challenge forecast credibility, action closure and residual exposure
  • Personal application plans define immediate changes for current project responsibilities

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Project risk register template
  2. Probability-impact assessment matrix
  3. Risk response action plan
  4. Key risk indicator dashboard
  5. Project recovery diagnostic checklist
  6. Recovery roadmap and stakeholder communication pack

Who should attend

  • Project Managers — responsible for controlling delivery risks and recovering troubled work
  • Programme Managers — coordinating risks, dependencies and interventions across multiple projects
  • PMO Managers — establishing consistent risk reporting, escalation and recovery controls
  • Project Sponsors — making informed decisions on tolerances, funding and recovery options
  • Project Controls Professionals — interpreting schedule, cost and performance signals before failure escalates
  • Workstream and Delivery Leads — owning mitigation actions, dependencies and corrective measures

Skills and tools covered

Project risk analysisQuantitative risk modellingEarly-warning controlsRecovery planningSchedule recoveryStakeholder escalation

Tools and standards

ISO 31000, PMBOK Guide, Monte Carlo simulation, Earned Value Management

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, standards and decision criteria, followed by facilitated case work and group exercises. Participants analyse risk statements, assess exposure, select responses and interpret deteriorating project evidence. Simulations examine escalation decisions, sponsor communications and recovery trade-offs under time pressure. Application planning helps participants adapt the methods to a current or anticipated project. Discussion draws on participant experience from capital projects, technology delivery, public programmes, regulated change and supplier-managed work.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience contributing to, leading or supporting projects and should understand basic project concepts such as scope, schedule, budget, stakeholders and milestones. Familiarity with a project plan, RAID log or status report is useful. The course assumes participants can interpret simple schedule and cost information and discuss delivery issues with project teams. Prior formal certification in PRINCE2, PMBOK or Agile methods is not required. Advanced mathematics, specialist software expertise and previous experience managing a failed project are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand the basic elements of project delivery, including scope, schedule, budget, milestones and stakeholders. You do not need a formal project management qualification or advanced quantitative analysis experience.

Bring examples of a current project risk register, status report or recovery concern if your employer permits this. Sensitive information can be anonymised, and course materials provide templates for participants without project documents.

It is suited to project managers, programme managers, PMO staff, project controls professionals, sponsors and delivery leads. It is particularly relevant for people managing complex dependencies, supplier commitments, regulatory requirements or significant delivery uncertainty.

General project management courses cover planning, scheduling, scope, stakeholders and delivery control at a broad level. This course concentrates on managing uncertainty, detecting distress, making recovery decisions and restoring control when a project is off track.

Participants can use the risk register structure, assessment criteria, response plan and early-warning indicators in current projects. The recovery diagnostic and roadmap are designed for projects already experiencing cost, schedule, quality or stakeholder issues.

The programme contains ten teaching modules, each lasting about three contact hours, with remaining time used for introductions, breaks, review and application planning. Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours daily.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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