Project Management

Planning for the Little Risks

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Categories: Risk Management


How many times has this happened on your team? An engineer switches off his machine on a Friday evening, enjoys his weekend, only to come back on Monday to find out the computer won't start or connect to the network. It's a very common problem--and for teams like mine that are close to 50 people--it occurs nearly once a month.

It takes the IT team a day to get everything working again, which may push back an already delayed schedule. How do you prepare the mitigation/contingency plan for this kind of risk? It may seem minor, but how many of us even identify these types of little things as risks? We should.
 
In this instance, I suggest the project manager keep a backup machine with the required software and hardware ready for the team. I know it will cost more money, but if you are able to save a day's effort every month then it would be justifiable.

How do you prepare for these seemingly "little risks"?

See the article, Plan for Everyday Risks, Brace for the Ordinary, by Carl Pritchard, PMI-RMP, PMP, published in April in PMI Community Post.

Posted by sanjay saini on: May 06, 2009 11:08 AM | Permalink

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Muhammad Khizar Barakzai PhD Researcher| University of Galway, Ireland Galway, Ireland
I agree with Pete that such occurrences can happen or not but they do impact the actual project. Mostly these are not on the critical path but if they are on a critical path, they can alter the project schedule. So, this must be considered a genuine risk.

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