It’s summertime. You’ve saved up your time off and planned a great vacation for yourself and your family. How, as a project manager, do you make sure your vacation just has those fun “risks,” that everything runs smoothly while you’re away, and you’re able to enjoy your vacation uninterrupted?

This is where risk management skills come into play.

Risk management, as the PMBOK Guide defines it, is, “organizational policy for optimizing investments and (individual) risks to minimize the possibility of failure.” The key term here is “organizational policy.” The best way to avoid and mitigate risks is to have a clear and consistent plan for dealing with them.

Though risk management is only one of 10 areas in which project managers must be competent in order to hold the Project Management Professional (PMP) credential, it is an especially important one for project managers who plan to take time away from their team—whether it be for vacation or any other reason.

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