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If you say the word “risk” to ten people, each person may think of something different— insurance, threats, investments, bets, or potential loss. As we manage project teams, it's critical that you and your team members have a common understanding of what project risk means. Otherwise, people will be confused by your risk management efforts. It is no wonder that there is so much confusion about the meaning of risk. Many credible sources provide conflicting definitions. MORE
In this article, I will share three primary issues in scope management–not including all the work, gold plating, and poor alignment with objectives and goals. And, we'll look at solutions for each. First, let's examine what scope management includes. Project Scope Management includes the processes to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully." PMBOK Guide–Sixth Edition, page 129. MORE
Imagine a project manager that focuses primarily on identifying and managing project threats and very little on opportunities. This one-sided mindset can be costly. The best project managers know how to exploit and enhance opportunities. What is a Project Opportunity? MORE
Are you a better project manager today than you were a year ago? I hope my blog has boosted your knowledge and application. In case you missed some of my blog posts, I'm sharing my most popular project risk management posts of 2019. MORE
What would you do if all hell breaks loose in a critical company project that you are managing? You lose two of your best team members. Your budget is shot. A key stakeholder is breathing down your neck. Behind schedule by four weeks. You haven't slept well in two weeks. And you feel like throwing in the towel. Taking on Risky Projects Some projects are more risky than others. A project sponsor sees an opportunity. It's a stretch and he knows it, but he wants to try anyway. MORE
Stop and consider the words you've spoken recently to your project teams. How would you characterize them? Are you speaking words that bring clarity, courage, and confidence to your teams? Are you asking the right questions to keep your team focused? MORE
When is risk exposure greatest in a project? In the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the project? It's actually highest in the beginning. Let's look at how to reduce risk exposure early in your projects. Why Risk Exposure Is Greatest in the Beginning So, why is your risk exposure greatest in the beginning? Project managers have the least amount of information. This is when uncertainty is greatest. MORE
Friends, have you experienced wasteful project meetings lately? Although meetings are a fundamental communication tool, many meetings fail to achieve real results. Let’s look at four common project meeting problems: unclear purpose, topic hopping, indecision, and unclear direction. MORE
Ninety percent of a project manager’s job is communication. And one of the most important things to communicate is your risks. How do you communicate risks? Communicating Project Risks 1. Understand Your Stakeholder Needs and Preferences It all starts with your stakeholder. We can’t manage expectations if we haven't identified the individuals, groups, and organizations who may impact your project or be impacted by your project. MORE
In this blog post, we will explore the differences between qualitative and quantitative risk analysis. What is each? And when should you perform these processes? Let's dive in. Qualitative Risk Analysis Once you've identified your risks, it's important to evaluate your risks. MORE
If you are looking for a great way to engage your key stakeholders and identify project risks, perform a SWOT Analysis. Project managers or other facilitators can use this powerful tool to identify strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, strengths may give rise to opportunities and weaknesses may lead to threats. Let's look at how to perform a SWOT Analysis. SWOT Example. What is SWOT? S Strengths. MORE
Project managers are faced with numerous decisions. And many times, you need to engage your project team in reaching project decisions. Voting may be used to quickly make a decision. A decision is reached when the largest block of individuals vote for an option is called: A. Majority vote B. MORE
I often hear people say, “Our company has too many meetings. The meetings last too long and they are woefully mismanaged.” And yet, meetings can be an indispensable tool for accomplishing work. Let’s look at 10 ways to improve project meetings and achieve greater results. MORE
Most of us have personal and career goals. Our ability to achieve those goals is dependent on our risk management skills, that is our ability to manage opportunities and threats. We seek to make good things happen and to eliminate or reduce the bad things. Through the years, I have captured my favorite quotes related to the art and science of risk management. I hope you enjoy the insights as well as the humor. MORE
Some Project Management Offices (PMOs) never get off the ground. I've seen others that are started and year or so later die a slow painful death. So, how can you build a PMO you can be proud of, one that thrives? Why Are There So Many Troubled PMOs? MORE
The Project Management Institute says, "high-performing companies manage risk in conjunction with projects and programs far more often than low performers do." How can you help your company manage risks and become a high performer? Let's look at ways to become a project risk management evangelist. MORE
Mike was a functional project manager in an organization where I managed a PMO. He was winsome and a hard worker. But his projects were trending in the wrong direction and his manager was not happy with Mike's performance. MORE
Project management is "the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project objectives" (PMBOK—6th Edition). So, how does project risk management fit into the world of project management? Hand in Glove Relationship Project risk management fits in project management like a hand in glove. It empowers the project manager to achieve the project objectives. Good risk management always begins with the project objectives as a foundation. MORE
So, what are project risk owners and how should project managers identify and assign them? Let's talk. Imagine that you are the project manager of a two-year, multi-million dollar project. During the execution of your project, you take a beach vacation. One of your team members calls upset that a major risk has occurred. You cooly reply, "No problem." You text the risk owner and discover that the risk response plan is being executed and everything is fine. Is this scenario possible? MORE
Project stakeholders are individuals, groups, and organizations that may affect or be affected by your projects. It's critical to understand how people inside and outside your organization may impact your projects. In this post, we will explore why stakeholder analysis is important. MORE
Why do so many projects come in late and over budget? Poor estimates are often a major factor in these projects. So, let's look at 7 ways to improve project estimates. Define the project work One of the top reasons for poor estimates is poor project definition. Project teams fail to identify significant work packages and associated project activities. Of course, these items are discovered later in the projects. How can project managers help overcome this problem? MORE
According to PMI, "47% of unsuccessful projects fail to meet goals due to poor requirements management." Requirements are a pretty big deal. Let's look at five things to start and five things to stop in requirements management. 5 Things to Start Identify and engage appropriate stakeholders. Project managers who work in a matrix environment should seek resource approval from stakeholder's managers early in the project. Ensure the requested software features will be used. MORE
How is it that some coaches, leaders, and yes even project managers can take a rag-tag group and shape them into a high-performing team? How do these individuals secure the physical resources? It’s not an accident. It starts with a resource management plan. What is a Resource Management Plan? The resource management plan is "the component of the project management plan that provides guidance on how project resources should be categorized, allocated, managed, and released. MORE
Do you have your PMP® certification, but you're thinking about obtaining another Project Management Institute (PMI) certification? PMI offers eight certifications. Let's compare the Project Management Professional (PMP®) and the PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP®) certifications. MORE
Most of your project problems can be avoided or greatly reduced through risk management. The simple act of identifying and discussing risks goes a long way towards reducing problems in your project. Let's look at how to develop a project risk management plan. MORE
Have you ever conducted a project brainstorming session and found yourself drowning in a cloud of ideas? Not a bad thing, but how can we make sense of the ideas? Well, let's see how to create a project affinity map to sort your ideas. MORE
Steven Covey introduced the concept of Quadrant II activities—working on things that are important but are not urgent. Planning is a powerful Quadrant II activity that can save you time and energy. Think about the future so you can make better decisions in the present. MORE
Have you thought about the use of this two-letter conjunction in risk management lately? Let's look at how to use the power of If-Then risk statements. IF is a simple word that can open up new doors to writing clear risk statements. And it can be used to write opportunities as well as threats. If-Then Risk Statements Write Opportunity Statements Opportunities are events and conditions, that if they occur, have a positive impact on your project objectives (e.g., schedule, scope, budget, quality). MORE
Project managers constantly think about risks, both threats and opportunities. What if the requirements are late? What if the testing environment becomes unstable? How can we exploit the design skills of our developers? Let’s consider a simple but powerful tool to capture and manage your risks—the Risk Register. What to Include in a Risk Register. The Risk Register is simply a list of risk-related information including but not limited to: Risk Description. MORE
Oh, what a year! Thank you for being a part of the Project Risk Coach Community. In this article, I'm sharing my most popular project risk management posts of 2019. So, just how many of you came to the Project Risk Coach website in 2019? MORE
There may be inherent risks when we make project assumptions. We assume certain things to be true when in fact, they may not be. Consequently, we fail to challenge assumptions and continue planning and executing based on false notions. This can be costly. An Example of Wrong Assumptions So, how does this happen? In her book—Thinking in Bets—author Annie Duke shares an illustration: Suppose someone says, "I flipped a coin and it landed heads four times in a row. How likely is that to occur?" MORE
Great project managers are great communicators. And we are often required to inform, persuade, inspire, and lead others. Let's look at how public speaking may be hurting your career and twelve ways to become a better speaker. So, what is public speaking (also called oratory)? MORE
This is a guest article by Elizabeth Harrin from GirlsGuideToPM.com. Much of the time, risk management at the beginning of a project looks like getting the team in a room to review the whole project and work out what might be coming that could affect how the project proceeds. The project manager writes up the discussion in the risk register along with what the team is going to do to avoid or amplify (in the case of positive risk) the risks. MORE
This is a guest article by Dana Brownlee from professionalismmatters.com. One of the most common questions I get when speaking to groups is “How do you deliver a difficult message to/push back on senior leaders – particularly the difficult ones?” I certainly understand the popularity of the question because that’s a sticky situation for sure. MORE
Project Risk Coach
AUGUST 24, 2020
Mike was a functional project manager in an organization where I managed a PMO. He was winsome and a hard worker. But his projects were trending in the wrong direction and his manager was not happy with Mike's performance.
Project Risk Coach
FEBRUARY 10, 2020
Most of your project problems can be avoided or greatly reduced through risk management. The simple act of identifying and discussing risks goes a long way towards reducing problems in your project. Let's look at how to develop a project risk management plan.
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Project Risk Coach
SEPTEMBER 28, 2020
Do you have your PMP® certification, but you're thinking about obtaining another Project Management Institute (PMI) certification? PMI offers eight certifications. Let's compare the Project Management Professional (PMP®) and the PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP®) certifications.
Project Risk Coach
SEPTEMBER 8, 2020
Imagine a project manager that focuses primarily on identifying and managing project threats and very little on opportunities. This one-sided mindset can be costly. The best project managers know how to exploit and enhance opportunities. What is a Project Opportunity?
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How can project planning that stretches over months or years remain relevant and account for new ad-hoc activities that arrive every day?
Project Risk Coach
FEBRUARY 17, 2020
Steven Covey introduced the concept of Quadrant II activities—working on things that are important but are not urgent. Planning is a powerful Quadrant II activity that can save you time and energy. Think about the future so you can make better decisions in the present.
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Project Risk Coach
SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
Project managers are faced with numerous decisions. And many times, you need to engage your project team in reaching project decisions. Voting may be used to quickly make a decision. A decision is reached when the largest block of individuals vote for an option is called: A. Majority vote B.
Project Risk Coach
APRIL 6, 2020
In this blog post, we will explore the differences between qualitative and quantitative risk analysis. What is each? And when should you perform these processes? Let's dive in. Qualitative Risk Analysis Once you've identified your risks, it's important to evaluate your risks.
Project Risk Coach
JULY 29, 2019
What would you do if all hell breaks loose in a critical company project that you are managing? You lose two of your best team members. Your budget is shot. A key stakeholder is breathing down your neck. Behind schedule by four weeks. You haven't slept well in two weeks. And you feel like throwing in the towel. Taking on Risky Projects Some projects are more risky than others. A project sponsor sees an opportunity. It's a stretch and he knows it, but he wants to try anyway.
Project Risk Coach
JULY 1, 2019
If you are looking for a great way to engage your key stakeholders and identify project risks, perform a SWOT Analysis. Project managers or other facilitators can use this powerful tool to identify strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, strengths may give rise to opportunities and weaknesses may lead to threats. Let's look at how to perform a SWOT Analysis. SWOT Example. What is SWOT? S Strengths.
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This eBook describes the process of managing the project budget and its associated costs.
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Project Risk Coach
OCTOBER 22, 2018
Some Project Management Offices (PMOs) never get off the ground. I've seen others that are started and year or so later die a slow painful death. So, how can you build a PMO you can be proud of, one that thrives? Why Are There So Many Troubled PMOs?
Project Risk Coach
JANUARY 14, 2019
Project managers constantly think about risks, both threats and opportunities. What if the requirements are late? What if the testing environment becomes unstable? How can we exploit the design skills of our developers? Let’s consider a simple but powerful tool to capture and manage your risks—the Risk Register. What to Include in a Risk Register. The Risk Register is simply a list of risk-related information including but not limited to: Risk Description.
Project Risk Coach
APRIL 20, 2020
Stop and consider the words you've spoken recently to your project teams. How would you characterize them? Are you speaking words that bring clarity, courage, and confidence to your teams? Are you asking the right questions to keep your team focused?
Project Risk Coach
APRIL 22, 2019
This is a guest article by Dana Brownlee from professionalismmatters.com. One of the most common questions I get when speaking to groups is “How do you deliver a difficult message to/push back on senior leaders – particularly the difficult ones?” I certainly understand the popularity of the question because that’s a sticky situation for sure.
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These FREE most popular templates will help you perform your role more efficiently.
Project Risk Coach
JANUARY 16, 2020
Are you a better project manager today than you were a year ago? I hope my blog has boosted your knowledge and application. In case you missed some of my blog posts, I'm sharing my most popular project risk management posts of 2019.
Project Risk Coach
DECEMBER 2, 2019
Project stakeholders are individuals, groups, and organizations that may affect or be affected by your projects. It's critical to understand how people inside and outside your organization may impact your projects. In this post, we will explore why stakeholder analysis is important.
Project Risk Coach
OCTOBER 8, 2019
Project management is "the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project objectives" (PMBOK—6th Edition). So, how does project risk management fit into the world of project management? Hand in Glove Relationship Project risk management fits in project management like a hand in glove. It empowers the project manager to achieve the project objectives. Good risk management always begins with the project objectives as a foundation.
Project Risk Coach
DECEMBER 31, 2019
I often hear people say, “Our company has too many meetings. The meetings last too long and they are woefully mismanaged.” And yet, meetings can be an indispensable tool for accomplishing work. Let’s look at 10 ways to improve project meetings and achieve greater results.
Speaker: Luke Freiler, CEO and co-founder of Centercode
After weathering recessions with a wide range of iconic customers, CEO and Product Manager Luke Freiler has seen first hand the impact the Voice of the Customer has had in making or breaking tech companies during hard times. He's going to walk you through an agile process for continuous customer testing that saves you time and gives you full confidence in your products — no matter how many you're sending out the door this year.
Project Risk Coach
JUNE 22, 2020
Why do so many projects come in late and over budget? Poor estimates are often a major factor in these projects. So, let's look at 7 ways to improve project estimates. Define the project work One of the top reasons for poor estimates is poor project definition. Project teams fail to identify significant work packages and associated project activities. Of course, these items are discovered later in the projects. How can project managers help overcome this problem?
Project Risk Coach
JANUARY 20, 2020
The Project Management Institute says, "high-performing companies manage risk in conjunction with projects and programs far more often than low performers do." How can you help your company manage risks and become a high performer? Let's look at ways to become a project risk management evangelist.
Project Risk Coach
JANUARY 21, 2019
If you say the word “risk” to ten people, each person may think of something different— insurance, threats, investments, bets, or potential loss. As we manage project teams, it's critical that you and your team members have a common understanding of what project risk means. Otherwise, people will be confused by your risk management efforts. It is no wonder that there is so much confusion about the meaning of risk. Many credible sources provide conflicting definitions.
Project Risk Coach
NOVEMBER 18, 2019
How is it that some coaches, leaders, and yes even project managers can take a rag-tag group and shape them into a high-performing team? How do these individuals secure the physical resources? It’s not an accident. It starts with a resource management plan. What is a Resource Management Plan? The resource management plan is "the component of the project management plan that provides guidance on how project resources should be categorized, allocated, managed, and released.
Speaker: Peter Taylor, Speaker & Author of The Lazy Project Manager
Social Collaborative Management aims at delivering, at the enterprise level, a common goal for the business while harnessing the performance advantages of a collaborative community. This is a vital paradigm shift that many organisations are trying to understand right now - balancing traditional work and centralised leadership against the value of decentralised teams and trust. But the principles of harnessing collective power, collaboration, and community build an underlying ‘constant change’ capability that is critical in today’s new work environment.
Project Risk Coach
APRIL 8, 2019
Most of us have personal and career goals. Our ability to achieve those goals is dependent on our risk management skills, that is our ability to manage opportunities and threats. We seek to make good things happen and to eliminate or reduce the bad things. Through the years, I have captured my favorite quotes related to the art and science of risk management. I hope you enjoy the insights as well as the humor.
Project Risk Coach
MAY 13, 2019
According to PMI, "47% of unsuccessful projects fail to meet goals due to poor requirements management." Requirements are a pretty big deal. Let's look at five things to start and five things to stop in requirements management. 5 Things to Start Identify and engage appropriate stakeholders. Project managers who work in a matrix environment should seek resource approval from stakeholder's managers early in the project. Ensure the requested software features will be used.
Project Risk Coach
JANUARY 16, 2020
Oh, what a year! Thank you for being a part of the Project Risk Coach Community. In this article, I'm sharing my most popular project risk management posts of 2019. So, just how many of you came to the Project Risk Coach website in 2019?
Project Risk Coach
JULY 22, 2019
When is risk exposure greatest in a project? In the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the project? It's actually highest in the beginning. Let's look at how to reduce risk exposure early in your projects. Why Risk Exposure Is Greatest in the Beginning So, why is your risk exposure greatest in the beginning? Project managers have the least amount of information. This is when uncertainty is greatest.
Speaker: Hope Gurion, Product Leader Coach, Fearless Product LLC
Customer discovery is the lifeblood of product teams to identify the most important customer needs to solve next. Often it's the Product and UX members of the trio who take lead on facilitating this discovery. But what about other customer-facing teams in an organization? How do product teams best partner with these teams to understand customers’ unmet needs and decide which needs to address next?
Project Risk Coach
NOVEMBER 11, 2019
In this article, I will share three primary issues in scope management–not including all the work, gold plating, and poor alignment with objectives and goals. And, we'll look at solutions for each. First, let's examine what scope management includes. Project Scope Management includes the processes to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully." PMBOK Guide–Sixth Edition, page 129.
Project Risk Coach
AUGUST 19, 2019
So, what are project risk owners and how should project managers identify and assign them? Let's talk. Imagine that you are the project manager of a two-year, multi-million dollar project. During the execution of your project, you take a beach vacation. One of your team members calls upset that a major risk has occurred. You cooly reply, "No problem." You text the risk owner and discover that the risk response plan is being executed and everything is fine. Is this scenario possible?
Project Risk Coach
JULY 8, 2019
Have you thought about the use of this two-letter conjunction in risk management lately? Let's look at how to use the power of If-Then risk statements. IF is a simple word that can open up new doors to writing clear risk statements. And it can be used to write opportunities as well as threats. If-Then Risk Statements Write Opportunity Statements Opportunities are events and conditions, that if they occur, have a positive impact on your project objectives (e.g., schedule, scope, budget, quality).
Project Risk Coach
AUGUST 26, 2019
There may be inherent risks when we make project assumptions. We assume certain things to be true when in fact, they may not be. Consequently, we fail to challenge assumptions and continue planning and executing based on false notions. This can be costly. An Example of Wrong Assumptions So, how does this happen? In her book—Thinking in Bets—author Annie Duke shares an illustration: Suppose someone says, "I flipped a coin and it landed heads four times in a row. How likely is that to occur?"
Speaker: Greg Coticchia, CEO & Founder of ENTRA
Organizations of all types and sizes are facing common challenges of how to deal with the uncertainty in our current professional and personal lives. How can you plan when you are uncertain of what's next? On a product level, how can you be sure of delivering the ‘right’ messaging, products, solutions, and services to customers? How do you survive to fight the fight another day? In this session, we will discuss important tips for you as a Product Manager dealing with uncertainty. At the same time, we will discuss another important aspect of dealing with uncertainty, and that is building trust, especially while many of us are working remotely or in new or different settings.
Project Risk Coach
DECEMBER 3, 2018
Have you ever conducted a project brainstorming session and found yourself drowning in a cloud of ideas? Not a bad thing, but how can we make sense of the ideas? Well, let's see how to create a project affinity map to sort your ideas.
Project Risk Coach
DECEMBER 16, 2019
Friends, have you experienced wasteful project meetings lately? Although meetings are a fundamental communication tool, many meetings fail to achieve real results. Let’s look at four common project meeting problems: unclear purpose, topic hopping, indecision, and unclear direction.
Project Risk Coach
NOVEMBER 5, 2018
Great project managers are great communicators. And we are often required to inform, persuade, inspire, and lead others. Let's look at how public speaking may be hurting your career and twelve ways to become a better speaker. So, what is public speaking (also called oratory)?
Project Risk Coach
APRIL 1, 2019
This is a guest article by Elizabeth Harrin from GirlsGuideToPM.com. Much of the time, risk management at the beginning of a project looks like getting the team in a room to review the whole project and work out what might be coming that could affect how the project proceeds. The project manager writes up the discussion in the risk register along with what the team is going to do to avoid or amplify (in the case of positive risk) the risks.
Speaker: Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant, Rothman Consulting Group
Many of us are accustomed to planning for either discovery or delivery. We know how to plan for where we want to be for a product (delivery). And, we know how to plan to discover a market (discovery). Right now in 2020, those plans might not be worth anything. The world is still in upheaval—and no one has a crystal ball to know when we should plan more in-depth. Instead of planning for either discovery or delivery, we can use experiments—for all our work. When we focus on experimentation, small bets, and short feedback loops, we can create the kinds of products our customers will love.
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