Use the five tips below to help deliver projects on time, on budget, and with the highest quality results.
Tip 1: End the ‘Walk on by’ Culture and Involve the Entire Project Team
Risk management must be a part of your project embraced by all team
members. Rather than teams looking blindly to the project manager and
assuming he is managing all risk for the project, the entire team must
be involved. In my experience, the organizations that are the most
successful at project risk management have both a top down and a bottom
up approach – risk management is mandated and supported from senior
management, and each team member is empowered to speak up and take
action. Employees who identify risks early are recognized and rewarded.
Tip 2: Identify Risks Early – Even in the Bid-Phase
Before the project even begins, your team should be already working
to identify risks. Begin by gathering all project members (and other
employees and partners who have worked on related projects) into
workshops and brainstorm a list of potential risks and opportunities.
Consult the project plan, old project plans, online resources, and
outside experts to make sure your list of probable risks is as complete
as possible.
Tip 3: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
To ensure risks are continuously identified and communicated
appropriately, add project risks and opportunity discussions as a
standing topic to the team’s regular meetings. The benefits of open
communication trickle up, as the project manager will have better
information to report to the project sponsor or principal, ensuring that
the customer doesn’t have unexpected surprises. Open communication
also allows for the identification of interrelated risks – risks that
appear small on their own, but may act as a catalyst for larger
problems.
Tip 4: Analyze and Prioritize – then Reprioritize
As risks are identified during a project, teams must decide how to
prioritize them. Overall, risks should be measured by the impact they
could have on the project goals, and start with those that could cause
the biggest losses and gains, and those with the highest probability of
occurrence. Once you have a set of risk criteria, use it to assess all
risks as they are identified during a project.
Risks may be rescored and reprioritized as they pass up the project
hierarchy and organization, based on the different priorities at each
level. What may be seen as a less important risk by a single project
might be viewed as more important at the program or organizational
level. Here a wider picture becomes clear across multiple projects and
strategic priorities, rather than operational needs, apply. For example,
a lack of skills seen in multiple projects may be best addressed by a
company-wide training program.
Tip 5: Plan and Implement Risk Responses
Once your risks are identified, analyzed, and prioritized, the risk
response is the activity that adds value to your project. The right
response can prevent a risk from occurring or minimize its negative
effects. Responses include risk avoidance, risk minimization, risk
transfer and risk acceptance.
By implementing risk management into a project early, and ensuring
risks are openly communicated throughout the project, teams can be more
successful in delivering on time and on budget, by avoiding unexpected
risks and sticking to the project timeline. And last of all, share what
worked – and what didn’t, throughout the business so the future bids and
projects have a library of best practices to call on.
How has risk management helped your organization complete projects
successfully? Are you sharing best practices across the business?by Chris Bell (Chief Marketing Officer at ERM software provider Active Risk.)
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