Risk exposure is the most feared issue that project managers deal with. How to overcome such a persistent problem? In this article at Project Risk Coach, Harry Hall discusses 5 tips to deal with the risk exposure firmly and early.
De-Risking Risk Exposure
The commonest reason for risk exposure is not identifying risks early. Initially, you have a vague idea about the project goals, delivery expectations, requirements, funds, challenges, success parameters, and resource availability. How to bridge this knowledge gap? Following are the 5 tips to deal with risk exposure better:
Identify the Stakeholders You Want in the Project: Do not ever keep any critical information from your stakeholders. Such actions can break the trust that you so painstakingly built over the numerous one-on-ones and meetings. Find out the key stakeholders and keep them close to avoid risk exposure.
Lay Down All the Cards: Be it the sponsor, team, or stakeholders, anyone that has stakes in the project, tell them the whole story. Your project charter must include title, description, goals, deliverables, assumptions, and limitations. Also include success KPIs, milestones, budget, high-level expectations and risks, and stakeholder list.
Be Transparent with Your Project Goals: Though it is not possible to have a clear vision right in the beginning, explain what you understand to the team. To reduce risk exposure, continuously update the entire team with the improved version of your project goals.
Analyze Risks: To address risk exposure early, have regular meetings and brainstorm to identify risks. Create flowcharts, perform a SWOT analysis, hold evaluation board. Revisit assumptions, create a prompt list, recheck checklist, and review documents to understand project risks.
Cross-check Stakeholders Expectations: To avoid risk exposure, cross-check your understanding of the documented information with the stakeholders. Rectifying a wrong idea is better than reworking on hours hard work.
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