The first question of risk management

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The first question of risk management -- in my opinion of course:

Where does the slack go?

And, that's the first question because:

• No matter the nature, cost, impact, probability etc of the risk, you can't manage any of these without slack, ie "buffer" or "white space". "No slack" is akin to "hope is not a plan" 
• Usually, the first parameter to be abused is the slack
• Usually, the first abuse is procrastination (Lets address "that" later)

If you don't know where in the plan you're going to put the slack, I'll bet you waste it putting things off and don't actually get the leverage of having slack.

The worst sin in risk management? "Latest start". All slack consumed up front for very little payoff.

And, so where should it go?

At the end! And, hope you don't need to use it

By the way, if you've not already seen the light, Eliyahu Goldratt thought about this same way and designed a whole idea -- Critical Chain -- around the idea of managing the most highly useful of tools: slack! 

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