What is a Workaround?
A workaround is the response to a risk that was never planned for — an unidentified risk (or a passively accepted one) has occurred, and the team improvises. Contrast with a contingency plan, which was designed in advance for an identified risk and simply executes when triggered.
Exam cue: "unplanned response to an unforeseen event" = workaround. Afterward, the event goes into the risk register and lessons learned — surprise is only excusable once.
Worked example
Nobody's register mentioned the crane operators' union strike in the port city where the transformers land. With the delivery ship three days out, the PM improvises: reroute to a smaller port 200km north, truck the units down on modular trailers. Costly, ugly, effective — a textbook workaround, and a new line in next project's risk register.