What are Risks?

Risks are factors that can have a negative impact on the execution of the project.  If left unmanaged, risks can severely affect the project's ability to deliver the planned benefit value. An iterative risk management process is required to avoid or mitigate damages. Standardisation of risk rating is essential to communicate the impact a risk may have on the project and allow them to be comparable within a program.

Amplify offers an iterative risk management workflow, where risks are identified, rated and communicated with the project and the program. Every risk is identified as a Delivery risk or a Realisation risk. An event that can impact the project is a  is a delivery risk, whereas any possible hindrance to achieving the targeted benefit value is termed as a realisation risk. A risk also has a standardised rating calculated from the impact and likelihood as well as a dedicated field for capturing any potential financial impact. 

How it works

• Risks are identified and documented in the project.
• Their impact and likelihood of occurrence is assessed and are given a rating.
• Mitigation steps are identified and a review date defined.
• Period review - Risks rating is reduced if incorporating mitigative measures brings down their impact or likelihood.

Best Practice Implementation 

The following sample scenario describes the standard steps and guidelines to identify, manage, and control project risks using Amplify.

Scenario Background

The Human Resource Department plans to implement a Workflow Management software as it expected to bring efficiency to its day-to-day operations and thereby significant cost savings. After his catchup with the IT vendor, the Project Manager see chances of a possible delay in Implementation timelines. This is a risk which needs to be assessed. 

Roles Involved

Project Owner

Documenting the Risk

The first step after identifying a risk would be to document its characteristics. 

Rating the Risk

Use the impact and likelihood estimates to calculate the standardised risk rating based on the organisation's risk matrix. 

Devising Mitigation Plan

Describe steps to mitigate the risk. 

Assigning a Review Date

Select a review date to evaluate the mitigation plan. 

Reviewing the Risk
The Project owner reviews risks based on the review date.  The Register allows stakeholders to review, prioritise and re-evaluate risks. 

Risk Dashboard shows all information pertaining to the risk. Project Manager can see the delivery and benefits risk indicators on the Gantt chart.  

Risk Closure

Once mitigation steps are underway, the impact and likelihood are reassessed on the review date, bringing down the rating as applicable or closing the risk.

See also

Creating a Risk, Assumption, Issue or Dependency item