This week for NETRIO’s Whiteboard Wednesday episode, Brian and Mike are discussing Risk Analysis as it relates to project management. When a new project presents itself, one of the first questions the team should be asking is, “What could go wrong?”. While this may seem negative, it is actually taking a proactive approach to Risk Analysis making it one of the most important things you can do for the success of the overall project. 

Click here to view last week’s Whiteboard Wednesday episode where Brian and Mike discussed “The Importance of Documentation in Project Management”.

What is Risk Management?

According to projectmanager.com, “Project risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to any risk that arises over the life cycle of a project to help the project remain on track and meet its goal. Risk management isn’t reactive only; it should be part of the planning process to figure out risk that might happen in the project and how to control that risk if it in fact occurs.” 

Task Related Risk Management

In each project there are tasks. Each of these tasks will have a dependency. In most cases, these tasks will be performed in order. Consequently, if there is  a task that is falling behind schedule, then that introduces risk for the tasks that are subsequent. This is where you have to measure the risk and then decide to add, remove or adjust resourcing. Resourcing leveling was discussed in episode four of our Whiteboard Wednesday series. After analyzing the risk, it is a good idea to utilize resource leveling to stay on track. 

By applying resource leveling, communication, and some of our previously discussed tenets of project management, you inherently can reduce the risk associated with not completing on time, on budget or not meeting expectations.

Top Risks In Project Management

In NETRIO’s experience, risks usually relate to an unrealistic timeline, an unrealistic budget, lack of preparation, lack of documentation, lack of formal process, or not getting resources assigned at the beginning. These risks can all be examples of things that will ultimately cause the project to fail or operate in a high risk category.

The goal with any of these risks would be to identify them early and face them head on before they are able to put the project in jeopardy. In next week’s episode, we will talk about Communication which is a critical component to risk analysis. 

This blog post is part of NETRIO’s weekly Whiteboard Wednesday series. Follow along on Linkedin and YouTube each week as Brian and Mike discuss use cases, new technology, and trends. The goal is to provide insights for enterprise customers and channel partners, trying to solve complex problems using technology.