Traditionally, responsibility for completing a mission and the resources needed to pursue it aligned with organizational boundaries. However, key drivers in the business environment, such as the globalization of business and the fast pace of technological change, have resulted in increased outsourcing and partnering among organizations. It is now common for multiple organizations to work collaboratively in pursuit of a single mission, which creates a degree of programmatic and process complexity that can be difficult to manage effectively. In today's business environment, management and staff must be able to deal with intricate and unclear interrelationships and dependencies among technologies, data, tasks, activities, processes, and people. Mission success in these complex environments requires people to sort through the inherent complexity when making important decisions. Effective risk management that is based on a solid conceptual foundation is an essential part of this decision-making process. This technical note begins to define this foundation by identifying the basic elements of risk and exploring how these elements can affect the potential for mission success.