Finding the holes in the boat
by admin on June 7, 2010
Find problems and deal with them before they sink your project. Use a risk matrix. Before I commit to delivering a project I often do the following.
- Have a negative brain storm
- Size up the risks with a risk matrix
Negative brainstorming simply means taking the time to think of all the things that might go wrong. With technology project there are usually lots of things that could be a problem. Everything from late assets to legal issues. I have done this so often that I now have a checklist of things that could go wrong. I use that for the basis and try to think of any others that might crop up. There are usually lots. Its important to know how big a risk is, if the risk is large enough you might want to avoid the project completely or renegotiate the deliverables. Mostly you will want to know what order to deal with them in, you need to prioritise?
This is where a risk matrix comes in handy. You plot the likelihood of occurrence against the impact if it happens. You can then times the scores to get an indication of how big a risk is. I like to use a 5 point scale. That way you can times the result by 4 and get an approximate percentage. You can then brainstorm ways to mitigate the risks. Here is an example matrix.
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