Start Risk Identification with Inherent Risk Factors

A lire sur: Method123

Would you agree tat large projects are generally riskier than small projects? Would you agree that having an inexperienced project team is riskier than having an experienced project team? Would you agree that using new technology on your project introduces some additional risk over a project that uses current technology.

Notice I did not give you any other information about the project. I did not tell you the type of project, the deliverables, the organization or any other project description. These are example of "inherent" risks. They are risks that could be inherent in the nature of your project. In other words, these types of risks are applicable to any project.

When you are identifying project risks, you can start with a checklist describing inherent risks, since they tend to hold true for all projects. Of course, the checklist needs to be customized for each organization to describe the risk level and risk tolerance for your organization.

Examples include:

Characteristic	High Risk	Low Risk
Duration	Longer than 12 months	Less than 3 months
Team size	Over 25 members	Fewer than 5
Project scope / deliverables	Poorly-defined	Well-defined
Project team and client business knowledge	Neither the project team nor the customer have solid business knowledge	Both the project team and the client have solid business knowledge
Requirements	Very complex, hard for client to define	Easy for client to define
Organization structures	Large amount of change	Little or no change
Physical location of team	Team is dispersed at several sites	Team is located together
Use of formal methodology	No formal methods or processes	Standard methods in use
Technology	New technology is being used for critical components	No new technology required

In the table above, medium-level risks would fall somewhere in the middle of the high and low risk.

Checking for inherent risks is the starting point for risk identification - but it is not the end. After you check for inherent risks, you still need to identify risks that are specific to your project. The combination of inherent risks and project specific risks will make up the totality of risks you take to risk analysis.