Risk is
everywhere - and with the current state of the economy, many industries are
making Risk Management a priority in everything they do. This mindset can be
particularly impactful in the project arena. Projects are vehicles of change,
and wherever there is change, there is risk. So how do you effect change
efficiently and with a significant impact without causing unintended harm or
miring your team in yards of red tape?
A
favorite tool of many organizations to manage risk is the Risk Assessment.
Anyone familiar with projects or project management should recognize this tool
in one form or another. Typically, the PM will call a meeting (or series of meetings)
to get the team to work through a template, brainstorm risks, document mitigations;
sometimes we'll even score them on their occurrence, severity and/or detection.
Maybe that document is updated and re-reviewed at each tollgate meeting and
hopefully signed off by the project sponsor. Documents and exercises like these
can be very useful in identifying the project level risks that the team needs
to be aware of, what can impact the strategy, derail the timeline, etc.
But effective
risk management in a project means a lot more than the exercises above. If these
tools are the entire project risk management strategy, they may leave the
effort open to the unforeseen issues that happen in everyday project work. Often, it is the day to day risks and issues
that become the derailers of a project - these are the ones that eat away at
project timelines, deliverable by deliverable, forcing the team to work
overtime and attempt to pull off heroics in order to meet deadlines.
The project manager has a
responsibility to do more than fill out a template because it’s being asked by the
PMO. PMs need to create awareness and management routines around the day to day
risks, in addition to the broader risk assessment exercises. This everyday risk
mindset is the best way to insulate projects from the unforeseen, and keep
projects from unnecessary delays.
How to make Risk Management a routine:
Make Risk a part of every update - Hopefully, the PM has established meetings where the subject matter experts or work stream leads provide updates on the status of their assignments, what's outstanding, when they'll be complete, etc. A very simple way get the team thinking risk is to ask about it with every update. Simple questions like "what can go wrong with..." or "what should I be concerned about?" will help the team get in the habit of thinking about where issues may arise.
Always think mitigation - Identifying risk is only the first step. Having a several contingency plans will help the team prepare for any unanticipated problems. “What is our best action if…” or “How should we react when…” are great ways to kick off these conversations. A complete plan of attack may not be necessary, but a high level straw man could be of tremendous value if a “what if” becomes an “oh no”.
Focus on the little things – Projects are most certainly impacted by the large scale risks and issues. Companies are bought, funding is lost, settlements occur… However, as a project manager, most of the controllable issues that arise come from the day to day. Here is where a solid risk routine can be vastly useful. Spend time understanding what work the SMEs and work stream leads are doing. Know what can go wrong, why it would and how to fix it. Close ties with project resources and firsthand knowledge of what needs to be done is a great way to keep ahead of risks and prevent issues.
Communicate – When risks become issues, a lot of PMs want to try to keep it quiet and attempt solve it before it becomes widely known. However, a better approach in these cases is to communicate early and often with project team members, stakeholders and SMEs. Engage these key players in solutioning. Ask for input or suggestions on your mitigation strategy. This dialogue may not only help solve the problem, but it will also show transparency in management and awareness by the PM of what it will take to complete the effort.
Make Risk a part of every update - Hopefully, the PM has established meetings where the subject matter experts or work stream leads provide updates on the status of their assignments, what's outstanding, when they'll be complete, etc. A very simple way get the team thinking risk is to ask about it with every update. Simple questions like "what can go wrong with..." or "what should I be concerned about?" will help the team get in the habit of thinking about where issues may arise.
Always think mitigation - Identifying risk is only the first step. Having a several contingency plans will help the team prepare for any unanticipated problems. “What is our best action if…” or “How should we react when…” are great ways to kick off these conversations. A complete plan of attack may not be necessary, but a high level straw man could be of tremendous value if a “what if” becomes an “oh no”.
Focus on the little things – Projects are most certainly impacted by the large scale risks and issues. Companies are bought, funding is lost, settlements occur… However, as a project manager, most of the controllable issues that arise come from the day to day. Here is where a solid risk routine can be vastly useful. Spend time understanding what work the SMEs and work stream leads are doing. Know what can go wrong, why it would and how to fix it. Close ties with project resources and firsthand knowledge of what needs to be done is a great way to keep ahead of risks and prevent issues.
Communicate – When risks become issues, a lot of PMs want to try to keep it quiet and attempt solve it before it becomes widely known. However, a better approach in these cases is to communicate early and often with project team members, stakeholders and SMEs. Engage these key players in solutioning. Ask for input or suggestions on your mitigation strategy. This dialogue may not only help solve the problem, but it will also show transparency in management and awareness by the PM of what it will take to complete the effort.
Risk is all around us, and there is no way to mitigate all
of them in any project work. The best strategy is to leverage techniques like
these to keep the project team thinking risk in all that they do, foster open
communications and prepare for the unknown. And when risks turn into issues,
hopefully the project team is prepared to meet the challenge.
Nice article about Risk Management.
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