This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Risk Management: An On-going Process -- I've recently come across a weblog by one Brian Kennemer, called projectified (not a typo, it's not capitalized). Brian's primary emphasis is on the use of Microsoft's Project Server, but along the way, he offers some good advice on project management in general. One recent post on risk management in particular caught my attention for my inaugural linkage to his work...
Risk Management in all it's glory (collection, analysis, ranking, planning, etc) is something that should certainly happen before the project starts. It can be a strong part of the go/no-go decision that starts the project. However, it should also be part of a process that happens just prior to the start of each phase of the project if not a part of the weekly status meetings that occur in most project organizations. It is also something that is not the sole domain of the PM or the PMO. EVERYONE on the team should be in a risk management mode from the very start of the project right up to dreaded 'lessons learned' meeting after the project ends. They should be keeping their eyes open for things that might go wrong. Even if they seem remote: put them on the list!
Risk Management is not an event. It is a continuous process that should involve the whole team.
Brian's thoughts are right in line with my view of risk management. As I've mentioned in one of my papers written for PMI, if the role of Project Management is to assist in turning uncertain events and efforts into certain outcomes and promises, then the primary process associated with project management should be that of risk management. How other processes, such as scope, schedule, and spending management support risk management is therefore critical for successful project management and for maximizing the value of our project-based efforts.
I'm tempted to turn the usual hierarchy on its head and say that project management is a component of risk management rather than vice versa. That view can be clarified if one recognizes that from a strategic view, PM is merely a tool for dealing with the risk associated with an organization's meta-project -- its strategy. But getting back down into the trenches of projects, all of our processes and procedures for planning, prognosticating, and performing are about dealing with the risk inherent in the uncertainty of the future in any endeavor. As a result these processes need to be focused on the future and flexible enough to both accept the reality of risks and capitalize on the options of opportunities.
(Oh, and Brian...Maybe the reason "lessons learned" meetings are dreaded is that they are too often limited to being held "after the project ends.")
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