Every time we make a decision, we reduce the probability of some risks but may increase the probability of other risks. Consider where the following story may fit into our discussion. We have a project that should have, in fact, started months ago to meet the desired production introduction date. Unfortunately, that did not happen […]
There are a number of quality tools that can help to evoke the risks that may be associated with your project. One such tool usually associated with cause and effect is the Ishikawa diagram. We can use this tool to explore risks as well. We will explore what happens (cause) and how it will impact […]
There are times when the project manager will be subjected to the long list of potential risks brought to them by their team. Handling these issues rather than summarily dismissing the item being brought to their attention as input from a hypercritical or doom-centric team member is important for project success and team morale. If […]
We perform risk audits on projects to ascertain whether we are deviating from the desired budget, schedule, and quality levels we specified at the start of the project. At the 50,000 foot level, risk auditing looks like the following: Define the problem Choose an audit team leader Choose an audit team or let the leader […]
Okay – so we have worked with our team and have documented a list of risks, and have performed a qualitative or quantitative assessment – perhaps even both of these. Now what? One such risk management failure then happens when we place the risk register on a shelf somewhere and the subsequent planned actions are […]
Program trigger events were discussed in our last blog. We can set up a program data base that has inbuilt triggers or we can pick up on the issue if we build these triggers into frequent product development reviews. We feel the project/program manager is the primary party to monitor for trigger events. Secondarily, the […]
Risks need to be assessed in regard to their business impacts, so that business decisions can be made promptly. Strategies should be built and decided based on the quantitative value of the risk. Managers must decide on whether to spend $500,000 to avoid a delay in a project. How long that delay is impacts the […]
We would like to thank those that have sent us some ideas. To sweeten the pot, we make the offer below. We have decided to extend our story acquisition for the configuration management book. Please send your stories and techniques to my email address at Jon.Quigley@valuetransform.com Elaborate all that you can (2-15 pages) without divulging […]
Many organizations have a series of activities or processes (design reviews, analyses, verifications, validations, etc.) that they go through to produce the end product or service. The work will start with some kind of development process, which may be a matter of days, months or years, depending on the complexity of the product or service. […]
Experience suggests risk management happens after we have already encountered numerous and severe risks. We can see engineers bringing “risks” to the project manager when we are already witnessing the symptoms and the impact to the project is inevitable. To be relevant, risk management has to occur when there is time to plan actions that […]