Back when I first started compiling tenders for Engineering contracts, we used to add 10% to cover what we called ‘contingencies’. This was meant to cover all the things you hadn’t thought of, or that might go wrong once you actually had to perform the contract. By the end of my career I was working on high value defense contracts. In place of the arbitrary 10% contingency, these included a far more scientific analysis of ‘risk’. A database was maintained in which was listed all the things that any member of the team thought could go wrong, along with the … Continue reading Playing the Trump Card