To gather possible risks in the project, we may have interviews, brainstorming sessions, checklists, Assumption Analysis, Ishikawa diagrams, NGT, etc...
But, Which questions do you ask the stakeholders to identify the risks in the project?
Some are:
1. What are the things that we are not doing do you think we should do? Why
2. What are the things that we are doing do you think we should not do? Why
3. What element of the present process do you think is an unseen benefit?
4. What element of the present process do you think is an untraced threat?
More similar questions? Saving Changes...
My experience has been that it is extremely difficult for folks to identify risks and translate that into a coherent relevant risk statement. Some good points made by Kiron, Aaron, and Peter. Senior management's question's to PM's is usually framed as "what keeps you up at night". As Kiron mentioned, having a robust WBS/ schedule is also a good starting point. For us, we have a very heavy governance process that is gated and which requires a multitude of document deliverables. Too often I see risks that are identified that don't focus on those deliverables and the key objective, which is getting through our various gated project phases successfully. So the question I put forth to our PM's is what risks do you see in achieving that phase gate/ objective. Also, because our projects are so lengthy, I really encourage a rolling wave approach. Focus on risks associated with the near team objectives, and review every 3-6 months. No point identifying a potential risk that is years away, and focusing scare resources on it when immediate risks are either ignored or not even identified. The other aspect that is always missed is the "event horizon" of the risk if there is one. It is of no use to anyone in identifying a bunch of risks if timelines associated with them are not also identified. This way, again senior management has a context of when the risks will potentially occur, and if they do not transpire, they can be retired. As Peter also pointed out, I really feel that a good portion of lessons learned should be embedded with the risk mangement process. Too often lessons learned are orphans, that are not completed until a project is completed which is totally useless in a true learning organization. Saving Changes...
Akash, i understand your question as how to identify risks.
One way to identify internal risks as below:
Make the team to assume at the end stage of the project.
At finished closing stage, assume the project is failed. list down the possible reasons.
Travel back step by step, process by process and list down all the possible failure causes
Reach till planning stage
Populate all the failure causes and you will get a great deal on understanding about the risks involved and you can plan prioritization and mitigation as per traditional methods.
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2 replies by Ganesh Manivannan and Peter Rapin
Aug 25, 2020 10:06 AM
Peter Rapin
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A bit too negative for me. Focuses on failure rather than success.
I consider the project by phase. Then ask "what's the best that could happen, what's the worst that could happen? Enhance the best and mitigate the worst.
Aug 25, 2020 10:14 AM
Ganesh Manivannan
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Peter, I am in full understanding about your point about not being negative.
Its an exercise which will bring more credibility and improve the probability of project success.
Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
Aug 25, 2020 9:58 AM
Replying to Ganesh Manivannan
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Akash, i understand your question as how to identify risks.
One way to identify internal risks as below:
Make the team to assume at the end stage of the project.
At finished closing stage, assume the project is failed. list down the possible reasons.
Travel back step by step, process by process and list down all the possible failure causes
Reach till planning stage
Populate all the failure causes and you will get a great deal on understanding about the risks involved and you can plan prioritization and mitigation as per traditional methods.
A bit too negative for me. Focuses on failure rather than success.
I consider the project by phase. Then ask "what's the best that could happen, what's the worst that could happen? Enhance the best and mitigate the worst. Saving Changes...
Akash, i understand your question as how to identify risks.
One way to identify internal risks as below:
Make the team to assume at the end stage of the project.
At finished closing stage, assume the project is failed. list down the possible reasons.
Travel back step by step, process by process and list down all the possible failure causes
Reach till planning stage
Populate all the failure causes and you will get a great deal on understanding about the risks involved and you can plan prioritization and mitigation as per traditional methods.
Peter, I am in full understanding about your point about not being negative.
Its an exercise which will bring more credibility and improve the probability of project success. Saving Changes...
Milena IlievaProgram Manager Global accounts| VMWareVienna, Austria
Akash,
From my experience, many people, including some PMs, are "afraid" to identify and deal with risks, Could be, as Peter stated in his comments, that people see them as only negative events. I think it may be because of lack of good understanding of risks and risk management.
Starting with the definition of "what is a risk?" - risk is a future event, which if occurs will have impact on reaching the project objectives with regards to scope, time, budget - the impact can be positive or negative. And with this you can identify risks as well as opportunities. Your audience need to understand well what is it that you are trying to identify. It is good also to differentiate the difference between risk and issue. Risks are events in the future, while issues have already occurred. Some people may mix these two.
Regards,
Milena Saving Changes...
Josh NicholsonCustomer Success Manager | Project Management Tools| nTaskCa, United States
nTask offers a cool risk management module for projects. You can easily create risk assessment matrix, and risk mitigation plans. Saving Changes...
One of the reasons that you may lose your audience is that risk management can be very negative. But it doesn't have to be. In your discussions alternate between adverse risk and opportunity. They are both part of the same process but opportunity for project enhancement tends to be overlooked.
It's been a while, but the experience I was thinking of had more to do with a specific group of people that were resistant to anything that took them away from what they considered their actual work. Once I got them engaged in the process, they were open to a deeper dive. If they had felt bombarded with what they considered irrelevant activities, they never would have engaged, and might have derailed the project - I witnessed them do that to another project manager when he attempted to lead them through a scoping exercise on a different project. Saving Changes...
You have to do AS-IS analysis by going through the artifacts, OPA, get knowledge and learn their current process/flows and then prepared your open ended questions to start elicitation Saving Changes...
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