Risk Response Strategies

Risk response strategies

In order to cope with the inherent risk in projects, risk response strategies should be properly defined, analysed and implemented. Risk response strategies consist of risk prevention (to reduce the probability of risk occurrence) and rist protection (to reduce the impact of risk). On this page, you find a summary of our research on risk response strategies in project management.

Implementing a proper risk response strategy requires the optimal allocation of limited budgets to either prevention and protection, taking into account the parameters of the risk model. OR&S has investigated this budget allocation problem for risk response strategies from different angles.

1. An analytical model

In order to analyse the impact of linear and non-linear cost/risk relations on the optimal budget, an analytical analysis is presented to provide guidelines to project managers. 

2. A fault tree optimisation

Risk events are triggered by causes and lead to consequences, which can be modelled in a fault tree risk analysis network. An optimisation model to solve the budget allocation model with 4 types of risk models is presented and managerial insights are provided.

3. Project networks with risk interaction networks

Schedule Risk Analysis (SRA) measures activity sensitivity to guide corrective actions during project control, but previous studies often overlooked the source of activity risks, leading to inaccurate sensitivity information. This study integrates the risk interaction network with the project network, proposing a novel sensitivity metric and simulation-based control model, which enhances control effectiveness and reliability across various project types, with a mix of strategies preferred based on project structure and timing.

  • Reference: "Schedule risk analysis for project control with risk interactions", 2025, Annals of Operations Research (under submission)
  • Data: Download the data used in this paper