How to reduce risk in projects?

From my experience, managing risk is a very tricky subject in Project Management, and it requires really a good experience.  It is good to plan for known/ unknown risks at beginning of Project to the maximum extent and it is equally important to have periodical review of risk plan. Also I am fond of recording the lessons, be it success or failure, so I strongly believe in maintaining Risk Register holistically. I love this famous quote “Mistakes are allowed as long as it is not repetitive and destructive”.

             As a manager what i have observed is a projects success or failure is due to poor requirements at any time throughout the project life cycle. The project manager needs to assess and understand the uniqueness of the requirements gathering process for their individual project. This helps to reduce the risk in the initial level itself. 

1. The key thing is to allow for risks, both known and unknown, at the solution architecture stage. The solution should be flexible enough to be changed when the unexpected happens. This will prevent project failure even when the risks materialize.

2. Continuous communication with all stakeholders goes a long way preventing project failures. Rather than waiting till the last minute the project manager needs to ensure that all identified risks and potential workarounds are communicated to stakeholders at the start of the project. This way project sponsers and stakeholders are not taken by suprise when somehting goes wrong.

First should be concentrate on key profit value and quality of project.

Risk has to be identified and assessed and the mitigation should be planned. But at the same time Opportunities should also be identified and assessed and used as one of the risk mitigation tool.

But remember both of these are unique for a project.

Risks exist everywhere and the rewards are directly proportionate to the risks. The Risk cannot be eliminated as they are inherently present in every project. However, the risks can be managed by keeping its measure under control by means of various risk mitigation tasks. 

The best that can be done is to effectively monitor and manage the risks, right from its identification, to invoking the contingency plans and by sharing the risk status to the stake holders. To achieve this, define and implement the risk management process, that suits your organization and the nature of the projects.

For example, ambiguity in the requirements is a risk that exists in every project. We can effectively manage this risk by tracking the follow up interactions with the stake holders to have these ambiguities clarified to closure. The Risk measure may be fluctuating over the project life and as such sharing the risk status with the stake holders will help them to appropriately determine set priority for various tasks identified in the mitigation plan.

As I see it a Project manager can deliver a successful project thereby reducing the risks by the following ways:

1. Know what is the project charter, what is the business problem at hand, what kind of solution is client looking for, what is success defined for this project. This gives the idea of the scope and client also trusts you that you are seeing the project from his perspective too.

2. How is the solution part; this can be achieved when you have the domain expertise so that you can understand the complexities involved in the project and how can they be handled. Moreover when the solution is clear, you can distribute the project effectively within your team.

3. Who involves understanding your core team, stakeholders, decision makes and on-site team, if any. PM being the central hub of communication needs to keep the interest of all of them in mind and keep them well-informed. Another important factor here is the role of motivating the team and aligning the goals of all them in the same direction and target.

PM has a big job, indeed....and I admire his sheer enthusiasm on the job. In all this the significant thing is that the PM stays cool, calm and focused.

Avoiding piracy and disloyalty can yield better results...