Module 6 – Managing Risk – From Concept to Outcome
Key Takeaways
- As projects involve ongoing change, no matter what stage your project is at, the risk is a constant companion.
- While no projects come with crystal balls, every effort should be made by relevant project stakeholders to identify and manage the project risk.
- Risk management is a structured process that seeks to deliver suitable risk management strategies to the project.
- The scope, magnitude, and impact of risk are dynamic – they will change throughout the project.
- Risk assessment is not just done at the beginning of the project – it is performed regularly throughout the project as the circumstances surrounding the project change.
- The management of risk must be assigned to authorised stakeholders if it is to be managed effectively.
- Attempts should be made to remove the subjectivity from both probability and consequence estimates.
- Research the risk profiles adopted by both relevant project stakeholders and associated project organisations.
- Don’t forget to review (and possibly update) your risk management strategies.
- Get all the relevant stakeholders to contribute to the risk assessment process. Not only will this increase the risk pool, but it will also help to communicate the potential impact that risk will have on the project.
- All project stakeholders should acknowledge the project risk and sign-off on the agreed control strategies – at each stage of the project’s life cycle.
- Remember, risk is presented in both negative and positive impacts. While the negative ones are easier to spot than the positive ones, search out the positive opportunities as well. By taking advantage of these positive aspects, the project’s quality, continuous improvement, and deliverables can be dramatically enhanced.
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Review Questions
- Assessing Risk. You are a project manager who has undertaken a full risk analysis exercise for designing and installing a new patient care health management software into a large-sized hospital, and you are in the process of hiring an IT specialist to develop the software. Just before the vacancy is advertised, the Hospital CEO is contemplating outsourcing the whole project to a supplier but wants your opinion based on evidence first. Discuss how you would deal with this. What actions would you take to ensure the right decision is made?
Exercises