Identifying Project Risks and How to Deal with It
Risks should be identified for the management to be ready with the strategies on how to handle them. These risks should be enough to stimulate creativity of the management team. There could be different impacts that these risks may bring to the company and they need to be addressed differently. An approach to one risk may not be effective on the other. It is an advantage to be aware of the risk categories and must be able to identify them. Risks do not apply to the business alone, but to the people, resources and strategies as well.
Project risks are categorized into three:
- Scope risks can be defined as the failure to comply with the set standards both by the company and the client. This kind of risk may be attributed to the technology being used and the applications being utilized in the project development. Scope risks can be mitigated through intelligent planning, explaining the project, organizing the changes, adjusting the time of procedures of the project, creating use of risk registers, identifying the main factors or reasons of the risk, and the appropriate reaction to the high risk situations and constructing greater risk toleration that can be made through client and company collaboration.
- Schedule risks refer to the difficulty in finishing the project on time. Such factors occur when this happens. This could be due to the impediment in the process be it people or the resources. These risks can be reduced by the methodologies existing nowadays and are proven to be effective. Setting realistic expectations would be a great help to accomplish and let the project finish at the expected and specified time. Time estimates must be based on the previous projects that have been done and must be based on deeply rooted facts about the nature of the project and the resources to be gathered.
- Resource risks could be the incompetence of the people that affect the operation, or the insufficient funds that need to be extended. Providing training programs to those people who lack skill will help them improve their skills and polish their work. Simply reprimanding them will not help. To add, proper budget allocation must be done and it must cover the contingencies. These costs must be computed accurately so there will not be over spending on a project.
Inaccuracy and incompetency are the factors why risks arise in the project procedures. These risks maybe, are unexpected, but it should not be an excuse not to be prepared with the resolutions for it. It is inevitable in a project to have some constraints or conflicts. These can be the people themselves because they cannot function and perform well in the project, or the lack of money and resources, or the lack of the strategies to be employed. It is important to understand the nature of the risks before arriving at a decision. The managers should identify the risk and its complexity. Having an advanced technology would be a great help in identifying and resolving these issues, so the managers must take advantage of using it.
