Risk management can impact project budget, schedule, and/or quality. Business Blackout, Lloyd’s of London and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Risk Studies, recently reported that U.S. power grid attack can result in approximately $70 billion in insurance claims and economic losses up as much as a trillion dollars.  Further, there are many different types of risk companies are trying to address including strategic, operational, compliance, financial, market, credit, and supply chain to name a few.  Strategic risk accounts for approximately 60% of the risk universe whereas operational and financial account for approximately 30% and 10%, respectively.

Even though many companies have been conducting risk assessment studies for many years, most companies find it challenging to create a complete enterprise risk assessment steps and realize its full value.  The chart below describes a basic process for risk assessment.

In the article, Enterprise Risk Management Beyond Theory, the study conducted interviews of five companies.  Most of the companies have suggested the following basic steps that are necessary for a robust risk assessment approach:

1. Buy-in from the top: All the companies in the article agree that the leadership must believe in the risk assessment approach in order for everyone to cooperate.
2. Keep it fresh: If the risk factors are not refreshed often, then breakdown may occur without having the key indicators triggering the events. The cyber attacks, which were considered unlikely a few years ago, are now considered an imminent threat to most large companies.
3. Condense the information: A complicated checklist will confuse people and even oversee the basic risks. There are various ways to report information including showing a likelihood of an event (likely, unlikely, and certain), ranking of the likelihood of an event (1-5), or ‘heat map’.
4. Learn from others: It is important to create processes that fit the organization’s need, but in order to gain a competitive advantage, the companies should also review other companies risk assessments.

My last employer used some of these approaches.  The company performed complete risk assessment every two-three years and the risk were categorized by business area or functions.  A formal “Risk Assessment Committee” reported directly to the President, which partly contributed to attention it received.  All aspects of the business were reviewed and the risks were categories 1-5 (5 being a likely scenario).  Anything over 3 were discussed each year and addressed over the following two years.  The checklist was kept transparent to all parties involved and certain part of the checklist was made available to the whole organization.

Certain risks such as business closure risks were discussed more frequently.  “Risk Assessment Checklist” was completed during and reviewed after each event (including weather-related events), which impacted a closure of the business.

What does your company or your competitors are doing to assess risk?  How do the factors mentioned above impact your organization?

 

Illustration of “Heat Map”

 

Source:

http://www.pwc.com/us/en/risk-management/assets/beyond-theory.pdf

http://www.pwc.com/en_us/us/issues/enterprise-risk-management/assets/risk_assessment_guide.pdf

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Governance-Risk-Compliance/dttl-grc-riskassessmentinpractice.pdf

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2015/07/08/374402.htm

While writing the communication plan for our project, I realized that there are so many ways to communicate and collaborate with our team without meeting face-to-face.  In today’s world, where telecommuting has become a second nature for most of the companies, it is important to select right tools to connect people.  The term ‘virtual teams’ will become a norm in the future.  Telecommuting has increased by 79% between 2005 and 2012, according to the American Community Survey (source: NY Times).

The type of the tool will depend on the size of the project.  The larger the project, more elaborate and standard industry tools will be required.  I found various articles that discusses number of free resources available to readily connect with team members.  10 must-have personal project management tools:

• Asana – Created by co-found of Facebook. One can create dependencies between tasks and organize tasks by date or due date.  It does not have a chat function.  The free version has a limit of 15 people.
• Smartsheet – It offers prebuilt templates such as Dropbox, Salesforce, and Google Apps. There is no limit as to number of users.  There is also a capability to produce Ganntt charts.
• Trello – It uses the Kanban model and refers to cards and to-do lists.  It gives the project manager an overview a gauge to measure how busy a person might be.  It is flexible and easy to use by dragging and dropping tasks.
• OneNote – This is a note taking tool or a fancy Microsoft Word. It comes with Micrsoft Suite, otherwise it can cost up to $70.
• Do – This is equivalent to having the meeting agenda and the follow ups in one place. It also interacts with Google Apps.
• Evernote – This is also a note taking tool and allows you to organize the notes and helps create presentations.
• AgileZen – This tool is equivalent to the Trello. It lets you create or manage tasks, invite others to collaborate, and instant message the team when necessary.
• Azendoo – This product has free storage along with the typical project management tools such as task assignment, track progress, etc.
• Teambox – This tool essentially replaces emails and text messaging. It lets to have thread of conversations which ensures that everyone is on the same page.
• Basecamp – This program has features including emails, organize groups, share documents in real time. Some companies using Basecamp include Twitter, Kellogg’s, Nike, and Adidas.

Some other not mentioned in this article includes GanttProject (similar to Microsoft Project), HipChat (chat room) and Google Apps (docs, calendars, and slides).

For our project, I have learned to use Trello and thus far my experience has been positive.  Similar to the sticky note approach discussed in our class, Trello is an electronic format.

The trick is to select a right tool for your team.  The project manager must evaluate the team needs, create a list of products that are necessary for the project, and compare the tools.

Source: 10 Must-Have Personal Project Management Tools http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-must-have-personal-project-management-tools.html Published on

Source: It’s Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/your-money/when-working-in-your-pajamas-is-more-productive.html?_r=0  Published on March 7, 2014.