Project Risk Review
Key Activities
- WBS
- Stakeholders
- Requirements
- Resources
- Solution/Technology
- Environmental
While performing project risk review:
- Focus on risks that could affect the satisfactory completion of the project. The key objective at this stage is to ensure successful project delivery, as compared to Concept stage which is to decide if a project should go ahead.
- The team better refer to a framework of risk sources or risk checklist based on past experience.
- This can be an individual or group exercise, depending on the size of the project.
- In general the more experienced the project team the easier they can develop counter-measures and response plan.
What to review?
- WBS & Schedule – Too tight? Unrealistic?
- Requirements – Unspecific? Unclear?
- Stakeholders – Who? Participation/Commitment? Hidden agenda? Resistance to change?
- Resources – Sufficient? Probability of change?
- Solution/Technology – Too new? Interface? Compatibility with existing platform?
- Environmental – Compliance? Org change?
The outcome of the review is a short list of risks (no more than 10!) with high priority and their mitigation plan. The list typically consists of some common risks such as:
- Unclear scope – Early user involvement, systematic approach in requirement gathering & analysis, change control formulation & buy in etc.
- The end users do not know what they want - Perform focus group analysis; Formulate a more detailed user requirement gathering exercise with 2 prototype stages planned;
- The user division keeps changing their requirements - Set up a change control system, and get their buy in from user division.
- Unrealistic Schedule - Negotiate for a better schedule; Identify areas that can be outsourced.
The list may also contain some specific risks that require special attention and mitigation strategy. For example:
- Use of new technology – Training; delivery in phases (pilot and full).
- Regulatory compliance issues – Have compliance division check current status.
There are two overall risk control strategies that should be applied for every project:
Change Control
A well communicated and agreed upon Change Control Process is very effective in:
- Reducing unnecessary changes;
- Encouraging user groups to think carefully about requirements in early stage of the project;
- Balancing scope change with other success criteria such as cost and schedule.
Negotiation
- Negotiate everything – schedule, resources, $$, people, requirements, deliverables…
- Negotiate early.
To be continued…
Copyright © 2008 Knowledge Century Limited.
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