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Product and Project Risk Assessment and Mitigation Tables
Quick Summary
Risk Assessment tables used during the early project selection process for documenting product risks, as well as several more detailed risk assessment categories for projects moving into full-blown planning. This expanded version includes contributions from Global Brain Inc.'s Quality Rapid Product Development methodology. There are formats and guidelines for assessing the true risks in areas such as market competition, technical innovations, and the nuts-and-bolts, boring-but-potentially-painful things like resource shortages and vendor/partner delivery delays.
What this is
This file contains an overview explanation of risk management, and several examples of Risk Assessment Tables to be used during the early project selection process and during detailed investigation and planning work. The goal is to ensure that technical and non-technical risks are factored into decisions about launching a project and into full project planning to make sure the risks will be handled.
During the Concept phase, the purpose is a quick high-level project risk assessment, with a focus on risks with the product or service being developed and any already-seen risks. During the Initiation phase, further risk identification is done, plus all the risks are analyzed—and sometimes assigned a score—for factors such as potential project impact, likelihood of occurrence, and difficulty of detection. Judgments are made on the overall riskiness of the project; mitigation plans are created to help the team avoid the risk, such as doing prototyping and early feasibility studies. Typically, backup plans are also made, to be invoked by the team for responding to the risk if it does occur.
Why it's useful
During the early days of the project, sometimes referred to as the Concept phase, a project idea should be quickly evaluated for business benefit, potential scope, and risk, so that the company can decide whether it's worth approving a project to go forward with more investigation. Making a first cut at risk assessment during the early Concept phase supplies critical information for this Go/No Go decision. It also flags the project team on areas where they will need to do a more involved risk assessment with prevention and contingency planning during the Initiation phase if the project gets a "go."
During that next phase, the project idea is investigated, implementation alternatives defined, and solutions chosen and planned in more detail. Risk assessment must occur in more detail as the potential implementations are designed and planned. All those risks must then be evaluated in more detail: to understand their potential impact on project costs, schedule, and scope; to judge the viability of the project or particular solutions; and to ensure adequate time and money are included in the project plan for avoiding risks and handling them if they do occur.
Several types of risk can be considered during the risk assessments.- Product risks are issues that would affect product selection process and determine whether a development project gets a "go." Those risks deal with strategic fit, competitive positioning, core competencies and market window opportunity.
- Innovation or technical risks deal with specific risks inherent in the implementation alternatives.
- Non-Technical Project risks deal additionally with typical risks such as resource shortages that could result in schedule delays.
How to use it
During the Concept phase, initial high-level risk assessment:
- Using previous experience with similar products, expert opinions on relevant technologies, and brainstorming with a cross-functional group, use Template 1 on page 3 and list as many high-level product risk items as possible.
- Give them a High - Medium - Low score for their potential impact on product success, the probability of their occurrence, and the difficulty of detecting the item during the product's entire lifecycle (not just development).
- See the instructions with that table for further information.
During the Initiation Phase (or Investigation/Planning Phase): Select from Templates 2, 3, and 4 to do an appropriate level of risk analysis for your project.
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