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Project Management Orientation

Qualitative Analysis  

Estimating Probability Using a Qualitative Analysis
  
Using a qualitative analysis to estimate probability, you assign a low, medium, or high category to the probability that the event will occur as follows:

Because low, medium, and high are relative terms, ensure that everyone on your team involved in the process of estimating probability uses these terms similarly. 

To illustrate, consider an example of a person skydiving.  When a person is skydiving, a parachute malfunction is a risk with a low probability.


Defining the Impact Using a Qualitative Analysis

After you define the probability for each risk event, you define the impact.  To do so, ask yourself,  what the impact to the project will be if this risk occurs.  In a qualitative analysis, impact can be categorized as low, medium, or high, as follows:  

In the skydiving example mentioned earlier, if the parachute does not open, the impact is (no pun intended) high.

1: Getting Started
2: Define the Project Team
3: Team Management
4: Identify and Validate Requirements
5: Create Decomposition Structures
6: Risk Management
7: Project Estimates
8: Project Schedules
9: Change Management
10: Project Control and Execution
Defining the Project
11: Project Management Review
12: Project Closeout
13: Project Management Tool Suite
14: Self-Assessment and Final Exam
Fast Points
Concepts
Seven Keys
Case Study
WWPMM
Mentor
Check Point
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