We can use a wide variety of techniques to stimulate creativity and help people decide what is needed. The usual form for the identified risks is our risk register where we document each of the risks and associated data for use in the later stages of risk management, which include risk analysis, the development of our risk response plan and ongoing monitoring and control of the risk management process.
A very common mistake in project management is to assume that risk management takes too much time and that it has little value in terms of improving the odds of the project finishing on time and within budget. When sponsors or project managers make this mistake, they create a project environment of continuous firefighting. That is, risks that we should and could anticipate affect us unexpectedly and cause weekly crises to which the project team must respond. This firefighting environment may look good to the outsider as the project manager and team are constantly scrambling to solve problems. The far better course is to identify risks, plan what we're going to do about them and not have to fight fires every week.
How to identify the risks facing your project |
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Step number |
Responsibility of |
Actions to take |
1 |
Project manager and sponsor |
The project manager and sponsor meet to discuss the major assumptions upon which the scope is based, the most significant constraints in terms of duration and budget and resources and the most significant positive risks and the most significant negative risks. |
2 |
Project manager and stakeholders |
The project manager facilitates a meeting between the sponsor, the major stakeholders and the team members to discuss the major risks facing each of the deliverables in the project. The project manager conducts this brainstorming session, restricting the conversation to identify risks, not talking about what we’ll do to avoid them or mitigate. To help the group members identify risks, the project manager may provide a listing of risk categories which might include risks from:
It’s important to remember in this discussion that the team should consider both positive and negative risks. |
3 |
Project manager |
The project manager documents the identified risks in a risk register, which a very simple table identifying the risks along with the definition of the risk that was identified. |
4 |
Project manager, sponsor and stakeholders |
Conduct a qualitative risk assessment where they subjectively evaluate the probability that each risk will occur and the magnitude of the impact if it does. |
5 |
Project manager and accountable team members are now ready to proceed with risk response planning and on larger projects quantitative risk analysis |
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Deep Dive on This Topic with Additional Articles:
Risk Management: A Focus on Prevention, Not Fire-Fighting
Project Planning: Using the Project Charter to Solve Problems
