Risk Management
Let’s look at risk management within program execution.
What is risk management?
Risk management is all about protecting your program.
A risk is a future potential issue that will disrupt the progress and success of the program.
You own risk management across the entire program. Your primary responsibility is to drive ownership and collaboration with those best equipped to handle the risk.
Risk management can include technical risks, such as the risk of a system failure, as well as nontechnical risks, such as the risk of a delay in project delivery due to unforeseen circumstances, like employee attrition. By proactively managing risks, you can minimize the potential negative impacts of these risks on the program and keep it on track for success.
There are a few key components of effective risk management:
Clearly defining what the risk is.
Risk prioritization by effectively articulating the potential impact and the likelihood of it occurring.
Identifying ownership for mitigation actions.
Understanding the timeline of when the risk needs to be taken care of.
Note: A risk that is not taken care of through proper mitigation efforts can become an issue.
Proactive vs. reactive risk management
Reactive risk management is constantly trying to put out fires and deal with issues. It is essentially issue management. This is a hazardous way to try to manage risks. We'll talk about issue management in the next lesson.
Proactive risk management is the way we attack future risks. It properly addresses risks as future issues.
If risk management and issue management are treated the same in your program, you will experience more severe issues. Your teams will burn out, program focus will be destroyed, and the probability of on-time delivery plummets. The bad news is that you can't avoid unplanned issues. The good news is that you can significantly reduce it with some good planning and communication.
Risk management culture
Risk and issue management is a team sport, not a solo adventure.
You partner with workstream owners to drive workstream-local risk and issue management best practices. Within your program team meetings, ask about risks that your team sees on the horizon. By asking these ...