PROJECT RISK ACADEMY
Cost and schedule confidence.
Better project decisions.
Project Risk Academy provides Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis (CSRA) and Estimate and Schedule Assurance Review (ESAR) to support investment, contingency and delivery decisions.Connect credible plans, clear analysis and practical risk responses to the decisions your project needs to make.
01 / SERVICES
Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis
CSRA · Understand your exposureAssess the range of possible cost and completion outcomes, identify the main drivers, and test how response choices affect the forecast.Use CSRA when you need evidence for investment approval, contingency, target dates or a change in delivery strategy.Outputs: cost and schedule confidence ranges, key risk drivers, response comparisons and findings for the decision at hand.
Estimate and Schedule Assurance Review
ESAR · Establish a credible basis for decisionsReview the scope, assumptions, estimate and schedule before relying on them for approval or risk analysis. Examine how the plan has been built, where its evidence is weak and what needs attention.Use ESAR ahead of a gate review, a CSRA or a significant change to the project baseline.Outputs: prioritised assurance findings, gaps and recommended actions to strengthen the plan.
02 / OUR APPROACH
Governance provides the framework.
Risk informs the decisions.
Start with the decision
Identify the decision, the people accountable for it and the evidence they need. Project stages develop that evidence; gates bring it together to decide whether, and under what conditions, to proceed.
Challenge the plan
ESAR · Estimate and schedule assurance
Examine the basis of the estimate and schedule. Make assumptions, gaps and limitations visible before using the plan to support a decision.
Analyse uncertainty
CSRA · Cost and schedule risk analysis
Connect the risk register, project uncertainty and delivery logic to the analysis. Test possible outcomes and response choices, and explain what the results can and cannot tell us.
Make the implications clear
Bring the findings into approval conditions, contingency decisions and accountable actions. Revisit the evidence as the project changes, through delivery and handover.
TOOLS / ACTARA
Tools supporting the approach
Actara Risker is an internal tool used in project risk analysis. It supports the analytical work within this approach, alongside project evidence and professional judgement.
Explore the thinking behind the work
The Learning library will bring together technical papers, worked examples and connected article series.Series in development: Governance and gates · Estimate and schedule assurance · CSRA in practice.
Discuss your next project decision.
Planning a CSRA, preparing for a gate review or testing the credibility of an estimate and schedule? Discuss the decision you face, the evidence available and where support would help.
PROJECTS / EXPERIENCE
Selected project experience.
Selected case studies are being prepared for this page. They will describe the project context, my role, the analysis performed and the decisions it supported.
Have a comparable challenge? Discuss your project and the experience most relevant to the decision you need to make.
LEARNING / NOTES FROM PRACTICE
Ideas, evidence and project risk.
This is the Academy’s space for my technical papers, practical articles and worked examples. The first series are being developed around the same questions that guide the project work.Explore the approach to see how these topics connect.
SERIES IN DEVELOPMENT
Governance and decision gates
What evidence does a gate need? How should uncertainty shape approval conditions, accountability and follow-through? A series connecting project risk to the decisions that govern the work.
A credible estimate and schedule
Scope, assumptions, estimate structure and schedule logic: the foundations of a useful analysis. This series will explore the questions behind Estimate and Schedule Assurance Review (ESAR).
CSRA in practice
From risk inputs and model assumptions to confidence ranges, response choices and contingency. Worked examples will focus on interpreting the analysis and using it in a project decision.
For support with a current project, explore the CSRA and ESAR services or discuss your project.