Creating the Risk Management Plan

In the previous chapter, we took a look at the resources or the inputs we will use to create the Risk Management Plan. In this chapter, we are going to look at the techniques used to create the RM Plan which is “Planning Meeting & Analysis”. Planning Meetings & Analysis is listed as a Tool & Technique in the Plan Risk Management process of the PMBOK Guide.

The Planning Meeting:

The Planning Meeting is where we are going to create our Risk Management Plan. In order to conduct or carry-out an effective meeting, we need to know what needs to be done. The following are things we need to know/get-done in order to complete this activity

1. Purpose of the Meeting – The high level purpose of our meeting is to develop the Risk Management Plan and all other risk management related activities in the Project
2. Who Attends – Usually the list of meeting attendees will include the Project Manager, selected project team members (usually leads) and stakeholders, anyone else who may be involved in risk planning and risk execution activities etc. Practically speaking everyone who has a say in how risk is planned or executed in our project must be a part of this meeting
3. When they are held – These planning meetings are usually held in the very early stages of the planning stage of our project
4. What to bring to the meeting – We need to bring all documents & resources that will be used to create the RM Plan. Remember all the inputs from the previous chapter?
5. Meeting Agenda – The meeting agenda usually varies from project to project but the basic agenda revolves around “What we are planning to accomplish in this meeting” which will be ”Creating the Risk Management Plan”. During the meeting, the participants have to go over various areas that need to be covered in order to complete the creation of the RM Plan. This would include

a. The Cost of conducting risk management activities that need to be included in the project budget
b. The risk schedule of activities that need to be included in the project schedule
c. The approach for risk & contingency reserves
d. The contingency reserves
e. Assigning risk related roles & responsibilities
f. Identifying risk categories that we will use in our project
g. Define the levels of risk, their probability & impact to be considered in our project
h. Etc.

6. The Output – This is a no-brainer. The output of this meeting would be the draft version of the Projects Risk Management Plan.

These planning meetings are critical to the project’s success because they create the foundation and the roadmap for all risk related activities in the project. The success of this meeting has a direct impact on how risks are managed in the project and eventually on the projects overall success itself.

We have seen above that the output of this planning meeting is the Risk Management Plan. But, what does this plan contain? This is what we are going to cover in the next chapter.

Prev: Inputs to Create the RM Plan

Next: Contents of a Risk Management Plan