Risk Management approach & learnings
Introduction
The objective is to proactively identify, assess and manage delivery risks. Best mitigation steps are to be the critical outcome.
This case story is based on the learnings from Risk management done for 100+ programs that had application development, maintenance and testing services as scope.
Identify and Manage Risks
Focused assessment of risks across various dimensions brought out potential risks. The dimensions across which the risks were assessed were Scope, Schedule, Quality, Process, People, etc. Mitigation plans were made for the risks. The risk plan was revisited every week for the status of existing risks and to identify any new risks During project reviews with senior management, had risk review as an agenda and highlighted on top risks and mitigations. Seeked management support wherever needed. Have communication established with relevant stakeholders towards risk tracking and closure.
Recommendations to mitigate key risky areas
Assess the maturity of delivery and engineering and take actions to move towards Best In Class delivery
Have a good estimation process in place for functional and non functional requirements
Identify backups for critical roles
Ensuring proper Knowledge Transfer from existing vendors
Have connect meetings with dependent teams
Ensure Project Kick-offs with specified agenda
Cross skill and upskill team
Maintain buffer people
Automate the automatable jobs
Run Performance testing before every release
Best Practices
Report key risks to clients and client senior management
Involve management regularly for risk reviews
Automate risk tracking
Top Challenges & Actions
Challenge1:
Risks not updated regularly by the Project team
How to overcome?
Have risk review as part of the project review by management. Use the risks entered in the system for this review
Share key risks to client based on risks entered in the system
Challenge2:
Getting time from management for project reviews
How to overcome?
Have recurring meetings planned in advance
Inclucde as part of Governance mechanism, reporting of top risks to the client senior management.
Challenge3:
Not having budget to build a Risk Management portal
How to overcome?
Have a simple system developed using O365 SharePoint, etc
Concluding Note
Risk management is a key to any project success and making people's work life smooth. We need a focused drive to identify and control risks on an ongoing basis.