From Risk Storming to Risks & Issues Log: Method to the Madness of the Ever-Changing Reality

Posted by Verarius
1-09-2023

In today’s article, we will talk about the derivation of risks and issues log and the installment of a routine. As we are still in the vacation season, some vacation and especially sailing metaphors managed to find their way into the text. With that, I wish you fair winds and following seas while exploring the risk landscape of your next project!

Don’t believe anyone who would say risk management is no place for creative minds! The risk identification process is a flux of wild ideas, which can carry you away if you are not careful. This is why today we are going to talk about tools that will help you manage that creative energy and not let you get carried away. These tools are a Risk Map and a Risk and Issues log. They serve the purpose of providing a framework and a structure for your ingenious ideas. The risk map, the ultimate outcome of the first step, provides an overview for all jeopardies a project is or might be facing. Leveraging this map to navigate through your project journey means introducing a Risk and Issues log that will help you focus and channel your attention. Having its periodic revision as one of the key routines will ensure you arrive at a safe harbor.

Let us have a look at the steps you need to go through when creating the log. As you can see, our vortex is moving through a kind of funnel becoming narrower at each step:

  1. Conduct a risk-storming session
  2. Group the Risks and construct a Risk Map
  3. Create the first Risks and Issues Log
  4. Formulate a generic Action & Communication Plan
  5. Establish a Revision & Actualization Routine

At the planning stage of a project, when the mind is still fresh and not confined by tunnel vision, a deliberate “Risk Storming” session is exactly what the doctor has ordered to identify not only unlikely but highly improbable yet detrimental risks. Risk storming is very similar to brainstorming, where you and your team are trying to generate as many ideas as possible. Similar to brainstorming, quantity beats quality here – no risk is too ludicrous to mention. Hence, encourage your team to stay open-minded and avoid auto censorship. Ironically enough, the more nonsensical risk you generate, the more sense the exercise will make. On top of that, the fun factor alone will turn it into a mini team building.

On a practical note, the point is not to guess or guestimate which unpleasant surprise exactly will hit your project. Rather, it is to intensify the awareness that some scenario might materialize, and that surprise can come from all possible directions. One can also perceive this “exercise” in a very physical sense of the word – as backbends intend to increase your flexibility, this exercise is helping you to keep your mind open and prevent you from becoming rigid and moving in the tight rut of everyday predictability. This is vital, for as a good project and process manager you will have a general penchant for routines, checklists, and protocols.  So, the more improbable and unusual risks you identify, the better.

As the next step, you bring some order into this creative chaos: you go through the risks and evaluate them based on two dimensions – probability and impact. All the risks with low impact should get some acknowledgment, but they are not our primary focus here.

Whereas those that score high on probability and impact require concrete mitigation plans, the approach with “low probability, high impact” category differs. They will be so dispersed in their nature that the goal will be to bring things to a common denominator. For that, you can derive a “one size fits all” initial plan for all the catastrophic yet improbable scenarios you came up with in the first step. By no means does it have to be a default “pull the plug” algorithm – although for some projects it does make sense to define an exit criterion upfront. What you do need, however, is a generic action plan followed by a clear communication strategy if specific (unfavorable) criteria are met. These first steps should be clear prior to the departure – at a minimum, it saves you from losing time during an unexpected and adverse situation, which by itself can have a demoralizing impact and slow down your decision-making process. Moreover, this “script” limits the influence of emotions. If you want to make it more sophisticated, you can also group the scenarios based on what they will impact the most – time, budget, resources, etc. and have several generic plans depending on that.

As the final step, you implement a routine for the revision and actualization of the Log to keep your hand on the pulse of the ever-evolving body of a project and the potential gargantuan cost lurking behind shiny opportunities.  

 

 

Related Blogs

Posted by Verarius | 29.09.2023
The whole discussion around the prototype we started last time fits neatly in the chain of the recent articles in this blog on cost escalation and risk management. Today we will look closer at how exactly a prototype helps you minimize the risk of cost escalation (and explosion) and what other benefits it brings you....
Read more
Posted by Verarius | 29.03.2024
Just as this blog entry in form of a book recommendation for “The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates” was finalized for publication, a devastating news became public – the author of the book in focus, Frans de Waal, had deceased. Primatologist Frans de Waal has contributed immensely to helping us, humans, see our species in a much broader context of our fellow primates, and also taking ourselves a little bit less seriously. As the Times journal put in 2007 when including Frans de Waal into its list of 100 individuals most impactful in transforming the world with their power, talent or moral example, “we may accept that we are descended from apes, but it takes the likes of de Waal to remind us that we haven't traveled that far”. These heartrending circumstances make me advocate for reading his books yet more adamantly. Thus, I rewrote the entry in the hope to spark more desire to delve into the fascinating world Frans de Waal opened for us....
Read more
Posted by Verarius | 02.08.2024
In the context of an exciting project for an OEM manufacturer, we are creating a CRM system with an accompanying dashboard, which includes various metrics and KPIs. At some point, it became apparent that there was a lack of common understanding about the difference between metrics and KPIs. However, this understanding is crucial. Being able to differentiate between both is indispensable for the ability to create such a CRM and dashboard that would help the organization reach its strategic targets. Moreover, asking around, I realized the lack of clear distinction existed also outside of our team, as both concepts were largely treated as synonyms. Thus, I decided this would be a good couple of terms for the next “Definition Game.” So, without further ado: Metrics & KPIs....
Read more