ABSTRACT

While the handbook is essentially a technical publication written for technical people, it is appropriate to keep in mind the book’s fundamental purpose, which can be stated in its simplest form as “caring for the customers.” Putting caring for the customers in a practical context, we can say that organizations must have the intent and appropriate capability to develop and produce wanted and risk-free products and services. When we say risk-free, we mean not only risk-free for the customer; however important that requirement is, it is also very much applicable to the organization’s objectives. Indeed, the proper management of risk is particularly about not endangering the continuity of existence of the business enterprise. In determining the content of this chapter, we had to make a choice between breadth and depth. We felt it was more appropriate to go for breadth in order to provide the reader with a reasonable range of topics so that anyone interested can undertake further reading as they see fit.