Project managers generally follow two methods to control the evolving risks—possibility and degree of impact. You must also consider a ‘third dimension’, and that is time. While some risks are always affecting your projects, a few emerge periodically. So, having a risk cycle model can enable you to assess them better. In this article at Practicing IT Project Management, Dave Gordon shares concepts to help you deal with evolving risks.
Categories of Evolving Risks
For proper implementation of your risk assessment life cycle, you must have a model. To further support the framework, you need to categorize the risks carefully. Here are the three categories of evolving risks you can leverage for your projects:
Dependency
If you depend on another team or a third-party service provider to progress with the planned project task, it is dependent on evolving risks. While you can wait for the other department, it can be a significant roadblock for critical deliveries.
Assumption
These risks are what you would say calculated risks, i.e., risks that you have taken by accepting the issues that might occur. The greater the probability of these risks changing their intensity or nature, the higher the priority of their mitigation. You might review your budget and project scope to accommodate these evolving risks.
Fleeting
When you have to shift a resource to some urgent tasks, that becomes a momentary risk. If the incident happens at the final stages of product development, it can affect your project delivery. While you may not be able to delay the task or wait for the resource to resume work, you can always reassign other resources. Decide what you would like to do to avoid or mitigate such risks. Do not allow these risks to settle on top of the growing pile of threats.
To view the original article in full, visit the following link: http://blog.practicingitpm.com/2020/04/20/managing-risks-that-evolve-over-time/
