Posted at 02:00h in What is Project Management by admin 0 Comments
Once upon a time, when I was still a pretty new project manager, I got assigned a dotted-lined reporting relationship to someone other than my usual program manager. The project was a big one, in terms of both dollars and prestige, and the guy was nervous. All to often, wed have conversations like this:
Mr. Nervous: Have you done anything about risk management? he would say.
Nev: Yep. Heres the risk log from yesterdays team meeting. Mr. Nervous: Why isnt it longer? Youre obviously overlooking things! Nev: Um
But the team only identified
Mr. Nervous: Team shmeam! Find the rest of em!
We did this a lot. It was never fun, and he was never satisfied, at least until we delivered, which we did, well within time, budget and quality measures
in spite of the fact that we got blindsided a couple of times.
Yes. Blindsided. Hosed by unforeseen gremlins lurking in the woodwork. We had a good list, but it wasnt quite complete. The worst part of it was Mr. Nervouss I-told-you-so look, which alternated with his panicked look (not much of a treat, either).
The whole experience got me interested in risk management. If 90% of a PMs job is communication, then the other 90% is risk management. So for the next few entries, thats what I want to talk about. If you do this well, in a way you can articulate to others, not only can you mellow out the Mr. Nervouss in your life, you can save yourself an ulcer or two.
Next: Risk Identification, Part 1