The Standard for Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects is an update and expansion upon PMI’s popular reference, The Practice Standard for Project Risk Management. Risk Management addresses the fact that certain events or conditions—whether expected or unforeseeable during the planning process—may occur with impacts on project, program, and portfolio objectives. These impacts can be positive or negative and may cause deviation from the intended objectives. Risk Management processes allow for the consideration of events that may or may not happen by describing them in terms of likelihood of occurrence and possible impact.

This standard will:

Identify the core principles for risk management
Describe the fundamentals of risk management and the environment within which it is carried out
Define the risk management life cycle, and
Apply risk management principles to the portfolio, program, and project domains within the context of an enterprise risk management approach



The standard focuses on the “what” of risk management (i.e., the key considerations for effective risk management). It is primarily written for portfolio, program, and project managers, but is a useful tool for leaders in risk management, business consumers of risk management, and other stakeholders of the portfolio, program, and project management professions.