Answer to Question #192783 in Management for okanna

Question

Project XY is faced with a number of challenges, where risks are not identified and many of these are already having adverse effects on several XY project’s objectives. However, the project management office tried to solely execute risk assessment task and all failed. You are now requested to identify potential causes to this problem and propose possible solutions thereof. 

Answer 1

The most common risk assessment mistakes are;

• Risk assessment done only for legal reasons- there are legal requirements but it cannot be the only reason for undertaking assessment. The main reason is they are a key tool in how you manage safety; without assessments, you cannot adequately manage the risks.
• Risk assessment done from the desk- You cannot assess the risk of a project while sitting on your desk, you need to have to view the operations and discuss what actually happens (not just what should happen) with the people involved.
• Covering only control measures in place- It is important to have control and stay in control when it comes to risk. Most people but a few plans in place and do not assess them properly.
• No management plan- this occurs when the only thing in place is individual risk assessment, What is required is an output of your risk assessments is a list of actions, in descending order of risk so that you can tackle the big issues first.
• No ranking of the risk- there are many risks in a project, it is important that you rank them by the order of seriousness. The most serious risk should be on top of your list.

Project managers should ensure that the risk assessment is done properly before the project kicks off.