Risk At the Program Level

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Risk Management   ProjectsAtWork  

The program stands in the middle of organizational risk management, executing down through projects and considering impacts up to the portfolio. Here are key factors when determining if risk management should be “downloaded” to the project level or “uploaded” to the program level.

Last month I started to look at organizational risk management as it applies to different levels of project execution, starting with the portfolio (see “Risk At the Portfolio Level”). This month I want to continue that process by moving down the tiers of project execution and looking at the program level.

There is obvious complexity at the program level because we must consider the impact of risks on and within the projects that make up the program, as well as on the portfolio as a whole. However, there are also additional risk considerations around the variable of time. In a program it is likely that not all projects will be underway at the same time, and some program initiatives may not even be part of the current organizational portfolio; however, they still impact and are impacted by organizational risk.

Program risk downloading

One of the cornerstones of program-level organizational risk management is the concept of downloading. In most organizations a program will be envisaged and approved prior to the constituent projects that will ultimately make up that program. As…

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.