Over the course of a project, there will be a number of times over the course of the project’s respective life cycle that the project management team and or the project management team leader will find themselves in a position in which they realize that a particular component as to the project and or a particular facet of that project does in fact come with a set or series of inherent risk. After all of these likely and potential risks have been properly organized and categorized, it is up to the project management team and or the project manager to effectively determine the best way to deal with these risks. One of the more tried and true mechanisms in the efforts to deal with these multitudes of risks is to shift the impact and of risk from a given project away from the parties involved in the actual management, planning, development, or conducting of a given project, and instead move it to a third party, who would also be assigned with some potential ownership of the anticipated response.
This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.