Qualitative Risk Management
MBP assists clients at multiple stages of their project risk management implementation:
- Risk planning
- Risk identification
- Risk analysis
- Risk response planning
- Risk monitoring and control
This comes in the form of facilitated risk workshops so that clients can ensure that risk management is successfully implemented and maintained.
Risk Planning
It is in the Risk Planning phase, that we define scope, team, and strategy for risk management. MBP assists clients to develop project and program-specific PRMPs. These plans provide the framework to identify, analyze, plan responses for, and monitor and control project risks. The Planning phase is also the point at which our clients gather their Project Risk Management Team (PRMT). It is important that a PRMT be small enough to remain nimble but also have a diverse representation of parties and roles to reflect a spectrum of perspectives and priorities.
Risk Identification
At this step, project teams identify and evaluate risks and document their characteristics. This will be an iterative process because new risks will continuously reveal themselves as the project progresses. MBP assists our clients in the development of a Project Risk Register through a facilitated risk workshop. The outcome of the workshop will be a Register which includes not only the risk itself but also its trigger (symptoms and warning signs), its likelihood and impact.
Risk Analysis
Identifying risks and documenting them in a Risk Register is not enough. The PRMT must actively engage in risk analysis. However, oftentimes, the number of risks in a Risk Register can be voluminous and overwhelming for a PRMT to tackle. For this reason, MBP assists our clients to prioritize their Project Risk Register, sorting the risks by their probability of occurring, their corresponding impact, and time frame.
Risk Response Planning
When faced with a project risk, there are four strategies to address the risk: transfer, mitigate, accept, or avoid. MBP assists our clients to work with their prioritized Project Risk Register and select the appropriate risk response strategy. More often than not, that risk response strategy is to mitigate risks. MBP facilitates those discussions so that the project team collaboratively arrives at feasible mitigation strategies and assigns an action officer who will be ultimately responsible for the risk.
Risk Monitoring and Controls
It is important to recognize that this last phase of project risk management is critical to the success of the project. The list of risks will change as the project matures: new risks will develop, anticipated risks may not materialize, identified risks may be effectively mitigated and be removed from the list. Risk ratings and prioritization commonly change during a project’s life cycle. A risk’s impact may be greater than expected and the planned mitigation strategy and actions may not be adequate. For these reasons, it is crucial that risk management meetings continue, and the project team repeat the tasks of risk identification, analysis, and response.
MBP assists clients to select an appropriate frequency for risk management meetings so that project teams have the desired level of awareness and control over project risks. We serve as facilitators for these meetings, encouraging candid discussions on risk identification and mitigation, as well as documenting updates and changes in the risk register.