Project Success Tips - Insights and observations on project management success. Providing useful advice and ideas for executives, project managers, and anyone interested in business project success. - Articles on Project Management by Glen Alleman

Programmatic Risk Management – Part 1
Article 1 in a Series on Risk Management
By Glen Alleman

The goal of any project is to produce the product or service, on-time, on-budget, and on-specification. This goal, of course, is difficult to achieve in an exact way. Getting close to budget, schedule, and specification becomes the real goal.

So the core question for project management performance measures (on-time, on-budget, and on-specification) is “how close can we get?” The answer to that question requires us to understand the risks that drive the actual project away from the ideal project. And the risk factors are both technical and programmatic.

All three elements of the project – cost, schedule, and technical performance – can drive performance “off baseline”. Off Baseline means away from the original plan... in other words, we’re not going to meet the cost, schedule, and technical performance goals as originally planned.

This series of articles will describe the programmatic risk aspects of project management. Programmatic risks impact the cost and schedule elements. As a project manager, the technical aspects of the project are usually in the hands of the technical staff, leaving the cost and schedule aspects to you.

Programmatic Risk Management - Part 2
Article 2 in a Series on Risk Management
By Glen Alleman

The first article introduced the idea of “uncertainty” in cost, schedule, and technical performance of projects. This uncertainty is defined literally as the “lack of certainty.” This is a tautology of course, but important for understanding the concepts of programmatic risk.

The idea that uncertainty and the risk that it produces can be “programmed out” of the schedule or a cost model is a false hope. All schedules and their associated costs have uncertainties. Uncertainty is about the variability in the performance measures of the project. Uncertainty is about the ambiguity associated with a lack of clarity. Discovering the sources of this uncertainty or ambiguity is the beginning of a programmatic risk management process. In many cases uncertainty arises from the basic processes of the work. This is the Deming uncertainty. (http://webserver.lemoyne.edu/~wright/deming.htm)

... Read the full article

Risk Management Frameworks
Article 3 in a Series on Risk Management
By Glen Alleman

Let’s start with a quick review of the previous two articles in this series on Programmatic Risk Management. This article will establish the principles of Risk Management, ending with one of the top level approaches to communicating about risk status.

Programmatic risk arises from three sources: (1) the naturally occurring “noise” in the cost and schedule. This is called the Deming risk. Attempts to control this type of risk is a waste. (2) The variances that emerge dynamically through the interactions of the work elements of the schedule, the cost components, and of course the performance of the technology. This is a stochastic risk driven by the underlying probabilistic activities of the planned work. (3) The technical risk causing unplanned delays and cost overruns.

... Read the full article

Thinking Like a Risk Manager
Article 4 in a Series on Risk Management
By Glen Alleman

Now that we have a framework to speak about risk management, how exactly are we going to “manage” the project? First, let’s revisit a quote from Tim Lister:

Risk Management is How Adults Manage Projects

My apologies for restating this particular quote so often – but I’m wanting to make a point… Risk management is a significant concern in almost all large projects today. Professional project managers on large projects need to take the concern seriously.

Read the full article

Main Menu