RISK MANAGEMENT
Identify risk, categorise risk, create mitigating action, agree risk owners, ensure actions are captured in both RAIDS and project schedule with delivery dates to mitigate.
It is beneficial to hold a Risk Management Workshop at the beginning of a project in order to:
- Identify risks and document such formally
- Grade risk with regards to possibility of occurrence – as a minimum- high/medium/low
- Understand cost of risk – estimate a monetary figure if risk is allowed to occur
- Agree mitigating action to take and schedule such with risk owner and timeline to implement
- Communicate understanding of risk across stakeholders, delivery team and end users so all are on the same page
NB just because a Risk is well documented in a RAIDS log (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) that does not mean the risk is managed – pro active action has to be taken to stop risk from being realised and so becoming an Issue which would cause negative impact on project delivery
- Dependencies i.e. a project requires another project or third party to deliver something to enable the end to end delivery plan to work are fraught with risk as the PM is dependant upon another party to do something by a certain date – regular formal dependency status meetings are necessary to ensure no surprises
- There can be cases whereby the cost of mitigating a risk is greater than the benefit to negate – the action required here is for the PM to formally document the decision taken to accept the risk