A Pragmatic Model for Managing Project Risks （4 and Final）

Execution Phase

During the project execution phase, risks should be regularly monitored and properly controlled. Just like any other activities during execution, this sounds like common sense, and I’ve not seen any organizations that say they are not doing it. There are also no hard and fast rule on who, what, when or how to do it. Overall speaking, we think the following guidelines should add value:

Regular meetings – Most people include risk review as part of the regular progress meeting. For really large projects there may be separate meetings. Sometimes regular meeting may not be able to help the team to deal with some unforeseen and urgent risks. Having said that, this is still the occasion when risks can be detected through discussion with team members.

Alertness to risks and open communication –Most risks can be discovered early if every project team member is alert to symptoms of risk. A seemingly harmless comment from the client, a minor concern expressed by a senior executive, or a report on the newspaper about your client being acquired by another company – All of these can indicate trouble for the project you are currently handling. And one person cannot do it all. If all team members have a high level of alertness to risk that would be a big plus to your project. Sure this sounds easier said than done, or even a bit far-fetched. In real life this differentiates a good team from an ordinary one. The project manager should at least cultivate an atmosphere of open communication and encourage sharing of any signs of risk, no matter how unlikely or remote they look, within the team.

There are a few things that should be consistently and regularly done to properly control risks:

Documentation – This is a very effective impact mitigation measure, in particular if there are external organizations involved. For example, vendors can use documentation such as meeting minutes, project reports etc. to protect themselves in an unfavorable situation. For in house projects, documentation can also be used by the project team to shield themselves from unnecessary accusation, albeit to a lesser extent.

Negotiation – This is a very effective means to avert the course of risk, or at least to reduce impact of certain risks. Before and during negotiation, you need to understand: What is at stake? The degree of criticality of each project objectives to key stakeholders? What are your bargaining chips? Any evidence to support your arguments? (Supportive documents would be very useful here.)

Communication - Information transparency through effective communication is an effective means to:

• Foresee new risks and re-evaluate known risks
• Avoid or control damage from risks
• Get support from senior management
  
• Open communication strengthens team spirit and the sense of being in a team. However, project team needs to be political savvy for external communication.
  

So that’s it. Our discussion of managing project risks stops here. Although we’ve spent 11 posts over a time span of 3 months to explore the subject, this can only represent the beginning of a somewhat long and difficult journey to shape the best risk management methods for projects of various scales.

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