Kendrick's coverage of risk, and more prominently uncertainty, is complete in a general fashion focusing a majority of his discussion on risk in projects due to poor planning and change management processes.

In the early part of his book he uses this significantly and the Appendix lists approximately 120 of the element's descriptions.

The book is structured to follow the PMBOK stages of a project — initiation, planning, controlling, executing and closure.

Each chapter discusses a set of concepts and concludes with a bulleted "Key Ideas" section and an anecdote from the two attempts to construct the Panama Canal.

"[3] The Quality Management Journal also wrote a favorable review for the work, which they felt was "insightful".