Project Risk Assessment Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Project Managers, Project Finance Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-RM-080

Before you join: Participants should have experience working on projects, programmes, budgets, contracts, risk registers or governance reporting.

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

Major projects fail to meet financial, schedule and service commitments when risks are identified late, scored inconsistently or treated as a reporting exercise. Project leaders need more than a risk register: they need defensible assessments that connect uncertain events to cost, schedule, cash flow, contractual obligations and decision rights. This course addresses the practical work of assessing project risks before they become losses, delays, claims or unplanned funding requests.

Participants learn a structured assessment process from risk identification through qualitative prioritisation, causal analysis, quantitative modelling, response selection and executive reporting. The course applies ISO 31000 principles alongside probability-impact matrices, FMEA, bow-tie analysis, expected monetary value, decision trees, Monte Carlo simulation, schedule risk analysis and sensitivity analysis. Participants learn to distinguish inherent from residual risk, calculate contingency requirements, test financial and commercial scenarios, assess control effectiveness and set meaningful escalation triggers.

The five-day instructor-led course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online. Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Short technical briefings are combined with project cases, group assessment work, simulations and facilitated review of risk decisions. Participants receive a certificate of completion and leave with a reusable project risk assessment pack containing a structured register, scoring criteria, quantitative analysis model, response plan, dashboard format and application plan.

The course suits professionals responsible for project governance, finance, delivery assurance, commercial decisions or major programme oversight. It is particularly relevant for capital projects, technology implementation, infrastructure, public-sector programmes, banking change portfolios and donor-funded initiatives.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct a project risk breakdown structure linked to work, cost and commercial assumptions
  • Facilitate structured risk identification using interviews, Delphi panels, prompt lists and pre-mortems
  • Score inherent and residual risks using calibrated probability-impact criteria and FMEA
  • Analyse causes, controls and consequences using bow-tie and fault tree techniques
  • Calculate expected monetary value, contingency ranges and decision-tree outcomes
  • Interpret Monte Carlo, sensitivity and scenario analysis for project cost and schedule decisions
  • Develop risk responses, trigger indicators and escalation rules for material exposures
  • Produce risk dashboards and board-ready reports linking exposure to financial forecasts

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Assess project exposures with evidence rather than subjective red-amber-green judgement
  • Justify contingency requests using expected monetary value and confidence ranges
  • Challenge weak risk controls through causal analysis and barrier testing
  • Present material risks clearly to sponsors, finance leaders and audit committees
  • Build a repeatable assessment approach for complex projects and programmes

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of cost, schedule, supplier and contractual exposures
  • More defensible contingency budgets and management reserve decisions
  • Consistent risk scoring across projects, portfolios and assurance reviews
  • Clearer escalation of risks requiring sponsor or board intervention
  • Stronger audit evidence for project controls, approvals and residual risk acceptance

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can establish project risk governance, thresholds and assessment boundaries before detailed analysis begins.

  • ISO 31000 principles, framework and process for project risk governance
  • Risk appetite, tolerance and capacity translated into measurable project thresholds
  • Three-lines model roles for sponsors, project managers and assurance teams
  • Risk breakdown structure aligned with work breakdown and cost accounts
  • Assumptions, constraints and dependencies recorded before risk identification workshops
  • Governance escalation routes matched to delegated authority and contingency approvals

Participants can identify project threats and opportunities using multiple structured evidence sources.

  • Structured interviews, Delphi panels and document reviews surface uncertain events
  • Prompt lists use PESTLE, technical interfaces and procurement dependencies
  • Cause-event-effect statements distinguish threats, opportunities and underlying drivers
  • Pre-mortem analysis exposes failure modes before detailed delivery commitments
  • Risk identification workshops separate facts, assumptions, concerns and actions
  • Risk register fields preserve source, owner, cause, event and effect

Participants can prioritise risks using calibrated qualitative criteria and documented scoring logic.

  • Probability-impact matrices calibrated with defined scales and scoring criteria
  • Inherent and residual ratings distinguish control effect from exposure
  • Risk velocity, proximity and detectability sharpen prioritisation decisions
  • FMEA calculates risk priority numbers from severity, occurrence and detection
  • Heat maps avoid false precision through documented scoring assumptions
  • Risk aggregation identifies correlated exposures hidden by individual ratings

Participants can analyse risk causes, consequences and controls to judge residual exposure.

  • Bow-tie analysis maps preventive barriers, recovery controls and escalation triggers
  • Fault tree analysis traces top events through logical failure combinations
  • Root cause analysis uses five whys and Ishikawa diagrams
  • Control design assesses preventive, detective and corrective control strength
  • Barrier ownership, testing frequency and evidence requirements support assurance
  • Residual risk acceptance follows defined authority limits and rationale

Participants can quantify uncertain project costs and compare response options using financial methods.

  • Expected monetary value quantifies contingent cost using probability-weighted impacts
  • Decision trees compare alternatives, branches, probabilities and expected values
  • Three-point estimates calculate PERT ranges for uncertain cost activities
  • Monte Carlo simulation models distributions, correlations and confidence intervals
  • Tornado diagrams rank variables by sensitivity to project value
  • Contingency reserves distinguish known risks from management reserve

Participants can assess how schedule uncertainty affects project costs, cash flow and milestones.

  • Critical path method identifies schedule drivers and float consumption
  • Schedule risk analysis applies uncertainty ranges to activity durations
  • Integrated cost-schedule models expose time-dependent cost and revenue effects
  • Procurement lead-time risks link market volatility to milestone exposure
  • Cash flow at risk quantifies downside from delayed project milestones
  • Scenario analysis tests base, downside and severe but plausible cases

Participants can assess financial, contractual and counterparty risks affecting project value.

  • Foreign exchange exposures identify transaction, translation and economic risk
  • Interest-rate scenarios assess financing cost variability and covenant pressure
  • Counterparty assessment reviews credit limits, collateral and payment terms
  • Contract risk allocation examines indemnities, caps, exclusions and change clauses
  • Commodity price hedging assumptions connect input costs with budget uncertainty
  • Earned value metrics reveal cost performance and estimate-at-completion risk

Participants can select, fund and monitor risk responses proportionate to project exposure.

  • Risk response strategies select avoid, reduce, transfer, accept or exploit
  • Response actions define owners, due dates, budgets and completion evidence
  • Insurance, bonds and guarantees evaluated against retained loss exposure
  • Contingency drawdown criteria prevent unapproved use of project reserves
  • Trigger indicators link early warning data to predefined response actions
  • Opportunity responses assess upside value, investment and delivery feasibility

Participants can report material project risks in formats that support timely management decisions.

  • Risk dashboards combine leading indicators, exposure trends and overdue actions
  • Key risk indicators set thresholds, data sources and reporting frequency
  • Risk-adjusted forecasts connect register changes with budget and schedule outlooks
  • Board papers present material exposures, decisions required and residual positions
  • Audit trails retain assessment evidence, approvals and control testing results
  • Lessons learned distinguish recurring patterns from isolated project events

Participants can conduct an integrated risk review and plan implementation on their projects.

  • Integrated risk review reconciles register, schedule, budget and commercial assumptions
  • Materiality criteria focus management attention on decision-relevant project exposures
  • Assurance plans schedule independent challenge, control tests and escalation reviews
  • Stakeholder communications tailor risk messages to sponsors, lenders and delivery teams
  • Risk culture actions address optimism bias, silence and late escalation
  • Personal application plan sets first reviews, stakeholders and deliverables

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

What you take back to work

  1. Project risk assessment workbook
  2. Calibrated probability-impact scoring matrix
  3. Bow-tie control assessment template
  4. Expected monetary value and decision-tree model
  5. Risk-adjusted dashboard and board paper format
  6. Project risk implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Project Managers — need defensible prioritisation and response plans for delivery risks
  • Project Finance Managers — need to quantify cost, cash flow and contingency exposure
  • Programme Managers — need consistent assessment across interdependent projects and workstreams
  • Risk Managers — need project-specific methods beyond enterprise-level risk reporting
  • Commercial and Procurement Managers — need to assess contract, supplier and market exposures
  • Internal Auditors and Assurance Leads — need evidence-based testing of risk controls and governance

Skills and tools covered

Risk quantificationControl assessmentScenario analysisContingency planningRisk reportingProject assurance

Tools and standards

ISO 31000, FMEA, Monte Carlo simulation, Bow-tie analysis

How the course runs

Training methodology

Instruction combines concise technical briefings with guided analysis of realistic project cases. Participants work in groups to identify and score risks, map causes and controls, build decision trees, interpret Monte Carlo outputs and assess response options. Simulations test how schedule slippage, supplier failure, currency movements and control breakdowns affect project decisions. Facilitated discussions compare assessment assumptions and reporting choices. Each participant develops an application plan that adapts the course methods, templates and governance practices to a current or upcoming project.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working on projects, programmes, budgets, contracts, risk registers or governance reporting. They should be comfortable interpreting basic financial information such as budgets, forecasts, cost variances and contingency amounts. Familiarity with common project terminology, including milestones, dependencies, work packages and stakeholders, is assumed. Prior formal training in risk management, statistics, Monte Carlo simulation or project management is not required. The course explains quantitative techniques step by step, but participants should be willing to work with probabilities, ranges and simple calculations.

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

Participants should understand basic project work, budgets and governance processes. Prior risk management certification, statistical training or Monte Carlo experience is not required.

Bring a laptop if possible, particularly for live quantitative modelling and template work. A current or recent project risk register, budget or schedule is useful but not mandatory.

It is designed for project managers, finance managers, programme leaders, risk professionals, commercial managers and assurance staff. It is most useful for people involved in projects with significant cost, schedule, supplier, contractual or funding uncertainty.

This course concentrates on assessing and quantifying risks within individual projects and programmes. It places particular emphasis on contingency, schedule uncertainty, financial exposure, controls, commercial risk and decision reporting.

Participants can use the supplied assessment pack to improve an existing risk register, reassess contingency, test controls and produce clearer risk reports. The application plan identifies the first stakeholders, reviews and deliverables needed for workplace use.

The course runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group work, quantitative simulations, discussion and application planning.

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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