Project managers of necessity have to stream a whole series of inter-related considerations into one seamless plan which will stand up to unforeseen circumstances and deliver maximum benefit.

No matter how perfect the development team “machine” the friction of events almost guarantees something will at least threaten to go wrong.

Worst of all is the glitsch for which there is no obvious contingency, because this can become a running stitch capable of throwing everything out of kilter while the team scrambles to find a way of putting it right.

Hence risk management - the ancient but also deeply modern art of devising answers to problem situations, based on a realistic assessment of cause and effect in each instance.

It would be just as accurate to call it “wargaming”, because of course the military plan their campaigns according to a vast range of factors ranging from supply logistics to the delays that can be imposed by bad weather - and the same logic translates to other areas of life such as air traffic management or (very obviously) fire safety in high rise buildings.

At project level the criteria are obviously different in their ultimate intent, but the basic thinking is identical - a risk management strategy will determine what happens when that Boeing flight has to make an emergency landing, or, less dramatically, what happens to a project if a normally reliable supply of raw material is suddenly delayed, or rockets up in price.

Once the potential hazard is clearly defined it becomes far easier to deal with, and the “wargaming” element makes things doubly secure by testing in detail how that response could work in a real life situation.

To take an extreme example, we can take a brief look at a military plan that went disastrously wrong, the notorious 1944 “Bridge Too Far” campaign in Holland during the Second World War.

The time-table for reinforcing the paratroops holding the vital bridge at Arnhem was unworkable, the paras were dropped miles from their objective, radio sets were defective, and enemy resistance was about ten times stronger than predicted - result, a consummate disaster.

But then the plan was evolved on the hoof to meet a sudden opportunity, and was adopted without the usual degree of detailed planning. This turned it from being “a plan” to being a gigantic gamble, and it was one which signally failed to pay off.

Risk management in the modern business and commercial world is about identifying and also quantifying risk, and assessing both the time and the resources needed to cope with a sudden problem.

At the same time the resources devoted to each area of potential difficulty have to be commensurate with the degree of risk - because over-resourcing every possible thing that could go wrong is an inefficient way to use valuable manpower and investment.

Far more important is the need to recognise how one area of endeavour is linked to another, and what effect a problem in one area will have on the whole project.

Similarly a ship which sustains heavy damage to its hull will lock down the bulkheads of the threatened area and deploy engineers and firefighters to first contain and then destroy the threat in rapid time, before it can spread to menace the whole vessel.

When a project team is able to react to a surprise development swiftly and efficiently the amount of time and resources will be minimised and the overall objective won’t be compromised.

Meanwhile although it’s obviously crucial to get things right from the start, it’s when a project nears completion - probably expanding in scale, while demanding serious enhanced investment - that the consequences of failing to plan thoroughly can be most financially devastating.

Not even the most organised and brilliant project manager can plan a completely perfect solution to every conceivable problem, particularly where a large and complex operation is concerned, but a well-organised team system staffed by people who know how they are support to act is the best defence against “left field” emergencies.

Finally, the adoption of a robust risk strategy shows the project manager was showing due diligence at every step of the operation, which can have an important bearing in legal and insurance terms.

“Risk” is really just another word for “unscheduled development”, and with sound planning it doesn’t need to carry its usual scary connotation - but it’s a factor any project manager ignores at his or her peril.