Making IT Projects Work: Managing the Double Technology and Processes Risks

  Risk Management   Knowledge Shelf  

Project  risk is defined as an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has either a positive or negative effect on a project’s objective. Generally speaking, the degree of uncertainty is directly proportional to the magnitude of change proposed. A complete migration to a new technology platform would, for instance, create more risks than say a minor upgrade of an existing platform. In a world of global economic uncertainty, the project team should not make things worse! The project risk management plan should provide stakeholders with the comfort that the project will deliver on the business objectives.

IT projects require both a change of technology and operational processes to capitalize on the new technological functions, which results in a double risk, because either the technology or processes could fail and imperil the project success as a whole. Whereas an IT team is likely to focus on the technology area, the business users tend to focus more closely on the process issues. The relative influence of these two stakeholders determines how the risks are handled and the success of the project risk management plan.

This feature article highlights some of the major risk areas of concern in an IT project. The article uses examples from a banking environment to show how a project team can  identify and deal with both the technical and process …

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