The Secret to Managing RAID Effectively (Part 1)
Risks. Assumptions. Issues. Dependencies.
Four concepts that almost every project manager has dealt with in one form or another. When managed effectively, they significantly reduce execution friction and better secure scope, schedule and budget success.
When not managed effectively, it’s like riding a bike with the brakes engaged—you may ultimately get to where you want to be, but it takes a lot more effort to get there.
Key to managing risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies (RAID) effectively is not just understanding each concept—it’s truly internalizing how the concepts interrelate. Understanding the interrelationships better positions the PM to not just manage each individual RAID component, but also to proactively address problems and avert scope, schedule or budget impacts.
To that end, my focus is to not just explain each of the RAID components, but to demonstrate the connection points between them. In my view, which I call the RAID 101 Model, the relationships look as follows:
- Assumptions are factors about the project that you expect to go a certain way for the project to be successful.
- Dependencies are situations where forces external to your project can impact or be impacted by your project from a scope, schedule or cost perspective.
- Unplanned potential problems are things that could happen to impact scope,
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