Best tips for risk management


rmisinfo.com keyword stats



Most current MSN search phrases:

health backup

Project Management Success with the Top 7 Best Practices

Managing a project can be daunting. Whethermonitor and compare the actual progress with
planning your wedding, developing a newthe planned progress. You will need progress
website or building your dream house by thereports from project team members. You should
sea, you need to employ project managementrecord variations between the actual and
techniques to help you succeed. I'llplanned cost, schedule and scope. You should
summarise the top 7 best practices at thereport variations to your manager and key
heart of good project management which canstakeholders and take corrective actions if
help  you  to  achieve  project  success.variations  get  too  large.
Define  the  scope  and  objectivesYou can adjust the plan in many ways to get
the project back on track but you will always
Firstly, understand the project objectives.end up juggling cost, scope and schedule. If
Suppose your boss asks you to organise athe project manager changes one of these,
blood donor campaign, is the objective to getthen one or both of the other elements will
as much blood donated as possible? Or, is itinevitably need changing. It is juggling
to raise the local company profile? Decidingthese three elements - known as the project
the real objectives will help you plan thetriangle - that typically causes a project
project.manager  the  most  headaches!
Scope defines the boundary of the project. IsChange  management
the organisation of transport to take staff
to the blood bank within scope? Or, shouldStakeholders often change their mind about
staff make their own way there? Decidingwhat must be delivered. Sometimes the
what's in or out of scope will determine thebusiness environment changes after the
amount  of  work  which  needs  performing.project starts, so assumptions made at the
beginning of the project may no longer be
Understand who the stakeholders are, whatvalid. This often means the scope or
they expect to be delivered and enlist theirdeliverables of the project need changing. If
support. Once you've defined the scope anda project manager accepted all changes into
objectives, get the stakeholders to reviewthe project, the project would inevitably go
and  agree  to  them.over budget, be late and might never be
completed.
Define  the  deliverables
By managing changes, the project manager can
You must define what will be delivered by themake decisions about whether or not to
project. If your project is an advertisingincorporate the changes immediately or in the
campaign for a new chocolate bar, then onefuture, or to reject them. This increases the
deliverable might be the artwork for anchances of project success because the
advertisement. So, decide what tangibleproject manager controls how the changes are
things will be delivered and document them inincorporated, can allocate resources
enough detail to enable someone else toaccordingly and can plan when and how the
produce  them  correctly  and  effectively.changes are made. Not managing changes
effectively is often a reason why projects
Key stakeholders must review the definitionfail.
of deliverables and must agree they
accurately  reflect  what  must be delivered.Risk  management
Project  planningRisks are events which can adversely affect
the successful outcome of the project. I've
Planning requires that the project managerworked on projects where risks have included:
decides which people, resources and budgetstaff lacking the technical skills to perform
are  required  to  complete  the  project.the work, hardware not being delivered on
time, the control room at risk of flooding
You must define what activities are requiredand many others. Risks will vary for each
to produce the deliverables using techniquesproject but the main risks to a project must
such as Work Breakdown Structures. You mustbe identified as soon as possible. Plans must
estimate the time and effort required forbe made to avoid the risk, or, if the risk
each activity, dependencies betweencannot be avoided, to mitigate the risk to
activities and decide a realistic schedule tolessen its impact if it occurs. This is known
complete them. Involve the project team inas  risk  management.
estimating how long activities will take. Set
milestones which indicate critical datesYou don't manage all risks because there
during the project. Write this into thecould be too many and not all risks have the
project plan. Get the key stakeholders tosame impact. So, identify all risks, estimate
review  and  agree  to  the  plan.the likelihood of each risk occurring (1 =
not likely, 2 = maybe likely, 3 = very
Communicationlikely). Estimate its impact on the project
(1 - low, 2 - medium, 3 - high), then
Project plans are useless unless they've beenmultiply the two numbers together to give the
communicated effectively to the project team.risk factor. High risk factors indicate the
Every team member needs to know theirseverest risks. Manage the ten with the
responsibilities. I once worked on a projecthighest risk factors. Constantly review risks
where the project manager sat in his officeand lookout for new ones since they have a
surrounded by huge paper schedules. Thehabit  of  occurring  at  any  moment.
problem was, nobody on his team knew what the
tasks and milestones were because he hadn'tNot managing risks effectively is a common
shared the plan with them. The project hitreason  why  projects  fail.
all kinds of problems with people doing
activities which they deemed important ratherSummary
than doing the activities assigned by the
project  manager.Following these best practices cannot
guarantee a successful project but they will
Tracking  and  reporting  project  progressprovide a better chance of success.
Disregarding these best practices will almost
Once your project is underway you mustcertainly lead to project failure.



1 A B C D 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112