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RISK ANALYSIS
Identify Threats
The first step in Risk Analysis is to identify the existing and possible threats that you might face. These can come from many different sources. For instance:
Human - from illness, death, injury, or other loss of a key individual.
Operational - from disruption to supplies and operations, loss of access to essential assets, or failures in distribution.
Reputational - from loss of customer or employee confidence, or damage to market reputation.
Procedural - from failures of accountability, internal systems, and controls; or from fraud.
Project - from going over budget, taking too long on key tasks, or experiencing issues with product or service quality.
Financial - from business failure, stock market fluctuations, interest rate changes, or non-availability of funding.
Technical - from advances in technology, or from technical failure.
Natural - from weather, natural disasters, or disease.
Political - from changes in tax, public opinion, government policy, or foreign influence.
Structural - from dangerous chemicals, poor lighting, falling boxes, or any situation where staff, products, or technology can be harmed.
The 6 Signs of pending project trouble:
Project team members are missing team meetings. This is never a good sign. Sometimes, it is an indication of a lack of discipline in a project. Often, it is a sign that team members are distancing themselves from the initiative. Perhaps they see a problem or a fatal flaw, and they do not want to be associated with failure. Whatever the reason, a Project Manager needs to address this, and fast.
Stakeholders are quiet. Conventional wisdom says that a quiet stakeholder is a happy stakeholder. I disagree. If stakeholders are not complaining about something, then there is potentially a major problem. Checking-in frequently with key stakeholders is always a good move.
Issues Log is not growing. The addition of new entries in the issues log is a sign that work is ongoing, and that learning is happening. If the log is not growing, then the opposite is happening, which can only mean trouble is close.
You must pry task completion data from your team members. It is critical for Project Managers to be monitoring task completion (or non-completions) data. When task owners are slow to update the completed task list or report on their performance, it is a sure sign that something is wrong, and the Project Manager better pay attention.
Your sponsor starts asking about specific project details. Sponsors are usually experienced, and well connected. They have great “noses” to smell problems. If your sponsor starts poking around your project, looking into the details, such as upcoming deliverable, then perhaps they suspect something is wrong.
Finance team member is starting to sweat. Most large projects have a finance person attached to the team (someone must watch the money). Most finance people have an uncanny ability to detect problems. If your finance team member is asking questions, and looking for additional information, then maybe a problem is looming.
COMMUNICATION
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." ~ George Bernard Shaw