Risk workshops are an important part of managing risk for all projects. They are typically done at the beginning of a project and any time a major change is made to the requirements or acceptance documents for the project. Risk workshops are brainstorming sessions to develop a list of risks for a project and determine the factors associated with those risks so that they can be mitigated.
Throughout this posting I use the word project a lot. In this context, project is a defined set of activities with a given beginning and end. Projects are common in all companies to take a unit of work and properly manage that unit of work to completion.
A Risk Workshop is a sit-down, face to face, thorough review of all aspects of a project. This commonly includes delivery schedules, acceptance plans, project financials and contracts associated with project delivery. The primary purpose of the risk workshop is to allow both project participants and outside observers to brainstorm all possible risks that could come up and come to agreement on risk level and mitigation strategies.
There are 2 priorities for all risk workshops. All participants should enter with these at the top of their mind as they look for mitigations strategies and project plan changes:
Protecting the company from financial loss. This can include penalties for delays or missed features, or having to redo work because of low quality.
Delivering the project on-time. All risk mitigation strategies should be worked together with developing the project plan so that estimations are realistic.
The primary deliverable for all risk workshops will be a risk workbook. The most common categories to track for each risk in this workbook are:
Risk Number – A unique identifier for the project so that team members can clearly communicate about each individual risk.
Raised By – The name of the individual who first brought up the risk. This should be tracked in the event clarification is needed about the risk or impact.
Date raised – The date that the risk was first discussed. All notes associated with the risk should have associated dates as well to track the progression of the risk discussions.
E/B/C – Engagement/Business/Customer – This category will define the risk type. Engagement is a risk associated with contractual details or the relationship between customer and vendor. Business risks are a risk that a product lifecycle may change or priories shift for a team. Customer risks are associated with delays on the customer side, either because of pre-requisites not being met or changes to the customer's requirements.
Description – This is the detailed description of the risk, what it affects and any supporting details to what could trigger it.
Risk Cost – This is the monetary cost of correcting the risk should it become a problem during the project. This includes time, facilities, and all associated resources needed to resolve the risk should it become a problem.
Risk % - This is the chance that the risk will occur during the project. This is used in pair with the risk cost to determine a risk budget for the project.
Mitigation Strategy – This category defines the solution for mitigating the risk. This should define what steps will be taken to lessen the chance of the risk turning into a problem. This could include additional staff on the project, earlier testing, or a chance in architecture.
Mitigation Cost – Mitigation cost documents the cost to minimize the chance of a risk occurring. This cost is then compared to the chance of the risk occurring and the cost of the risk occurring to determine if the mitigation cost should be spent, or continuing on the project and managing the risk if it does occur.
Risk Owner – The risk owner is the individual that best understands the risk and associated mitigation strategies. This is most commonly the person responsible for monitoring for the risk occurring and documenting the risk mitigation strategies.
Risk Trigger – Not all risks will become problems and impact a project. The risk trigger is what defines when the risk does become a problem so that staff can take steps to address the problem.
The first part of any risk workshop is to discuss the objective and purpose with the participants. All risk workshops should begin with a discussion of why the team has come together and what deliverable is expected at the end of the meeting. This deliverable will most often be a risk workbook containing all risks and their associated risk level, potential cost and mitigation strategies. All risk workshops should set time limits to ensure that if a discussion occurs on one risk, the meeting time is not overwhelmed. This time limit is too ensure everyone has a chance to speak on the topic. If consensus is not reached in that time frame, someone delegated by management should be responsible for getting input from all parties and making a decision on the risk level and other details.
I can not remember a project that I have worked on that had zero risk, or a list of zero risks. All projects have some level of risk, and the purpose of a risk workshop is to clearly define them and the plan for avoiding delays because of them. A long list of risks coming out of the risk workshop shows that the team was successful in thinking of possible pitfalls and mitigating them. The purpose of the meeting should not be to have a list of zero risks, that is not the same thing as a zero risk project.
As part of the risk mitigation portion of the risk workshop, there are two primary strategies for handling high risk components of a project:
Redesign – Often times a design can be redone to limit, or minimize the risk of a project. The redesign may have other impacts including cost of delivery or schedule impact that must be weighed against the potential risk.
Risk Mitigation – Mitigation is the most common strategy for managing risk. This is the early planning of how to handle a risk, should it become a problem. Mitigation often involves having clearly defined paths for escalation to other teams or additional resources available.
Ultimately the risk workbook will be used to develop a risk budget. This risk budget will be built into the project financials to ensure adequate resources are available to respond to risks if they do become problems, as well as providing funding to cover risk mitigation as necessary.
Risk workshops are a critical component to all successful projects. A risk workshop allows for all interested parties to express any risks they foresee and how to properly plan for and mitigate these risks. Risk workshops should not consume an unlimited amount of time, but should allow everyone to express an opinion to risk levels and allow that to be documented in the risk workbook for the project. Risk workbooks are living documents for the duration of a project and provide a single reference for developing the risk budget and showing mitigation strategies for a project.
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