What we usually neglect to do is to identify possible risks for each milestone on our timeline. The best project managers I know work very hard on identifying what can go wrong with their project mitigate it and regularly review the list or risk log.
It sounds counterproductive; how are you supposed to positively kick start a task if you are already thinking about how it can go wrong?
Anticipating and managing your risks, if done correctly and taken on with a positive mindset, will do more good than harm to your project.
This tip is an important tool for people tasked to manage projects which has a minimum of three key elements: a timeline of project milestones, an effective communication plan (more on that in another blog article), and risk assessment and prevention.
Prevention is actually the more important part of risk management. Being able to assess and anticipate risks will not matter if you do not come up with a plan to prevent those risks from taking place or turning into an issue. A risk is something that may happen in the future. Our job is to make sure that those risks do not materialize in the present moment.
Say, for example, that you are opening an Internet cafe. One of your project milestones could be the delivery and setup of your shop's computer units. This is essential to meeting the target opening date. What do you think are the possible risks in this scenario? What can go wrong? List them down with your team.
Your supplier can fail to deliver your hardware on time. This will inevitably delay the shops opening and hamper your business. If you anticipated this risk, one way to prevent it from happening is to split your order between two suppliers. That way, your business will not be crippled if one supplier fails to deliver.
To get you started on the habit of risk management, think of a project (work or personal) and create a list of the possible speed bumps you might encounter along the way. The take a piece of paper and create a grid with four columns. On top of each column, write “Risk”, “Mitigation”, “Single Accountable to mitigate”, “Date risk was logged”.
Of course, unless you are clairvoyant, there are risks that you will not be able to foresee and that is fine. As long as we do our best to identify most of the risks then we are in good shape.
Risk management is about minimizing and preventing risks from becoming issues. The less risks that turns into issues the more effective you become. If you do your job well speed bumps that may appear will only be those that are unpredictable. Most of the risks can be identified with due diligence.
Working with projects, go now and create and maintain a risk log. The chances of your projects hitting a delay is minimized.