You are managing a project. A risk was in the risk register which realized yesterday, but you was on leave.
Now, today you are in office. So, how will you manage the situation now?
(Type of risk and impact is not mentioned). Saving Changes...
Patrick ShediackProgram Manager| Air Force Lifecycle Management CenterDayton, Oh, United States
Beyond the formal risk planning/assessment/mitigation applied to projects, I try to always keep a healthy concern for the risks on everyone's 'radar scope'. This makes everyone on the team a "risk monitor", not just the "risk owner".
For example, one of my current efforts has a bi-weekly 45 minute telephone call with all the players. After the usual update discussion, I always bring up the question, "how are we doing from a risk perspective" which then drives a bit of conversation on the various project risks. When we have our periodic face-to-face meeting, a full day, every 60 days for this non-IT R&D project, I always ask the contractor's project manager in front of his team and mine, "What's keeping you up at night?" which then, of course, prompts a risk management discussion.
This cost- and time-boxed project is currently on track to complete in June 18 in scope, on time and on budget. Our biggest risk was the on-time receipt of a transceiver whose manufacturer required nine months of lead time from the day they received the purchase order. (It arrived last week, so we're still on schedule!)
Incidentally, I don't see how anyone could run a project that's both cost-boxed and time-boxed like the one I just mentioned without discussing risk issues at every status call or face to face meeting.
I always close my project meetings with a thank you to everyone and a gentle reminder that I would rather hear about problems sooner than later since "problems aren't like whiskey; they don't get better with age!" That's yet another reminder to everyone about keeping an eye on risks so they don't become issues.
If a contingency plan had been developed for responding to the realized risk, the team should have been able to execute that plan in your absence.
If no such plan existed, then you are dealing with an issue (not uncommon for PMs to face multiple issues after returning from time away!) and would follow the normal issue management processes for your project based on the urgency and specifics of the issue.
In the event that the issue could recur (i.e. the risk is not closed as a result of its realization), a mini-lessons learned after the issue has been resolved would be good so that you can improve the effectiveness of the risk response. You also have actual data of the impact of the realized risk so your quantitative risk data will be more accurate going forward.
Kiron
I believe this is the most appropriate way to handle this situation.
Thank you. Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
Dec 07, 2017 8:46 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
...
Sonali -
If a contingency plan had been developed for responding to the realized risk, the team should have been able to execute that plan in your absence.
If no such plan existed, then you are dealing with an issue (not uncommon for PMs to face multiple issues after returning from time away!) and would follow the normal issue management processes for your project based on the urgency and specifics of the issue.
In the event that the issue could recur (i.e. the risk is not closed as a result of its realization), a mini-lessons learned after the issue has been resolved would be good so that you can improve the effectiveness of the risk response. You also have actual data of the impact of the realized risk so your quantitative risk data will be more accurate going forward.
Kiron
I agree with Kiron on this. I think we should include contingency plans in standard operating procedures and make sure to provide initial training on the plan to team members. Saving Changes...
MICHAIL KOSTOUROSSENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, MSc,PMP,RMP,MCP,CIVIL ENGINEER| TECHNIKI 2000 S.A.Chalkida, Greece
Try to have at the status meetings a session about risk monitoring. So before you go away have a status meeting, ask from each risk owner if there is any sign of identified risk trigger according to your risk register. In this case, all your risk owners should be in an alert mode. I believe this is a proactive way you should follow so as to avoid in the future similar situations. Saving Changes...
