Risk Management Deliverables

Risk Management Plan: at the planning phase of the project, the project manager has to come up with a Risk Management Plan which describes what risk management tools are to be used for managing risks, who is responsible for managing risks, who will be involved in project risk meetings, and how often risk meetings will be held. This plan is very important since it gives guidelines and policies for managing the risks throughout the project life cycle.

Risk Identification and Evaluation Meeting(s): at the early stages of the project planning phase, and after the project team is assigned, the project manager gathers the project team for a risk identification and evaluation meeting(s) during which all initial risks are identified no matter how trivial they are. In this meeting, we use the risk categories sheet to help identify the most relevant risks to our project. These meetings are very useful since the most critical risks are identified at early stages of the project and accordingly, the proper risk plans are developed either by mitigating the risk, avoiding the risk, transferring the risk or creating a contingency plan for the risk. Once the risks are identified, we start evaluating the risks by giving scores to each risk probability and impact on the project. Using the probability/Impact matrix, the resulting scores are used to prioritize the risks and the risks with low scores are put on a watch list, the high score risks are entered to the risk register.

Risk Register: The outputs from the previous meetings are either put on a watch list (for low score risks) or are entered to the risk register. The risk register is created at the planning phase and is continuously updated throughout the project life cycle. A risk register is a very powerful tool since it lists all important risk along with their probability and impact, their mitigation strategy and a contingency plan, risk trigger and finally each risk status (open, closed). During the project execution phase, risk review meetings are held to review all risks and update their status, monitor their trigger, and review the validity of each risk mitigation strategy and contingency plans.

Risk Review Meetings: Creating a risk register alone is only half way through; monitoring the risks and updating the risk register during the project life cycle is the most important part since new risks might arise, old risks might not be valid anymore and risk mitigation strategies are revised. During the project execution phase and until the project closure, risk review meeting have to be conducted on a periodic manner, usually monthly and sometimes bi-weekly depending on the project duration and complexity of the project.

At our organization, the project manager who is PMP certified from PMI leads all the efforts for managing the risks. In addition to that, my organization sends application managers for project management training, because they need to have the minimal set of knowledge to aid them properly manage their projects and contribute effectively in the risk identification meetings, setting the RMP along with reviewing the risks.

Reference:

Bran, F, Hîncu, D, & Radulescu, C. (2009), 'PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT', Metalurgia International, 14, 5, pp. 102-105, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, EBSCOhost, [Online], Available from: http://content.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/pdf10/pdf/2009/2IZ2/01May09/37217958.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=37217958&S=R&D=iih&EbscoContent=dGJyMNHr7ESep7U4v%2BbwOLCmr0meprBSsam4TLKWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMOzprkmvqLJPuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA

(Accessed 16 April 2011)

Fairley, R., (2005), ‘Software Risk Management’, Software Engineering Glossary, [Online], Available from:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1438337

(Accessed 16 April 2011)

PMI, (2008), ‘The new PMBOK Guide’, edition 4