Author Archives: greg

FAA Next Gen Air Traffic Control System at Risk? – Ed Perkins

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERARecent headlines have claimed that because the FAA Next Gen air control system uses unencrypted GPS signals, the system can be attacked, with false signals sent to planes in midair. These claims were made by a self-styled “cyber hacker” on CNBC on Monday June 3. CNBC had contacted the FAA but a spokesman told them the agency has an ongoing risk process in place and that any such identified risks were “security sensitive”. See the CNBC  report online at http://www.cnbc.com/id/100784103 CNBC interviewed an expert on navigation systems, Prof. Todd Humphreys of UT, who told CNBC: “It ought to be obvious to the FAA. This is an obvious problem. This is something that’s using antiquated technology from the 1980s.” Continue reading →

#17 – QUALITY INPUTS TO THE 2013 REVISION OF COSO GUIDANCE – SANDFORD LIEBESMAN

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Sandford Liebesman pixThe COSO guidance was originated in the 1990’s in response to the Savings and Loan Crisis. It was developed to provide guidance to organizations while developing a system of internal control for their companies. About three years ago I was asked by Jeff Thomson, President and CEO of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), to join the IMA team helping to update the more than 20-year-old guidance. The team was ably led by J. Stephen McNally Finance Director/Controller of the Campbell Soup Company. Continue reading →

#16 – BUILDING A RISK INVENTORY TO PREPARE FOR MANAGING PROJECT RISKS – HOWARD WIENER

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Howard Wiener PixIn the first two posts (Managing Project Risk the PMI Way and Building a Risk Inventory To Manage Project Risks) in this thread we looked at two classes of project uncertainties—‘macro’ uncertainties, whose impacts are felt at the project level, and ‘micro’ uncertainties, whose impact is discernible at the level of individual Work Packages.  Given the PMI project management lifecycle, these uncertainties become concrete and must be dealt with at two different points.  ‘Macro’ uncertainties must be dealt with, or at least must begin to be dealt with, with during the Initiation process group.  In fact, many of these uncertainties must be identified and management of them started before Initiation even begins.  ‘Micro’ uncertainties can only be identified and materialized fully as activities in Planning are occurring.  Continue reading →

#16 – RISK/OPPORTUNITY BALANCE – LINDA WESTFALL

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Linda Westfall HeadshotFUTURE THINKING
The future seems to be coming at us at an ever-increasing rate.  As effective managers and practitioners, we must think proactively about all the possibilities that the future may bring, but those possibilities have uncertain outcomes.  We call those possibilities opportunities if we believe they will have positive outcomes.  For example, we have the opportunity to successfully complete a project and make a substantial profit or we have an opportunity to introduce a new product into the marketplace first and capture the lion’s share of that market.  We call those possibilities risks if we believe they will have negative outcomes.  For example, we have the risk of not successfully completing that same project and losing our investment or we may have the risk of our competition beating us to the marketplace with a new product and losing market share. To quote Tom DeMarco, “Moving aggressively after opportunity means running toward rather than away from risk.” Continue reading →