Section Summary – Identify Risks

In this section we took a detailed look at one of the key activities in project risk management which is “Risk Identification”. Let us quickly summarize what we have learnt so far:

• The purpose of the risk identification process is to identify all possible risks that can affect our project
• The outcome of this step is the Risk Register
• Documents and artifacts that contain details reg. the project are one of the key inputs to this process along with the Risk Management Plan which outlines how we are going to conduct this activity
• Uncertainties are sources of risks and in this step we are going to analyze every aspect of the project to uncover those uncertainties
• There are 7 different tools & techniques that we can use in this risk identification process. They are:

o Documentation Review
o Information Gathering Techniques
o Checklist Analysis
o Assumptions Analysis
o Diagramming Techniques
o SWOT Analysis and
o Expert Judgment

• Information Gathering Techniques include – Brainstorming, Delphi technique, Interviewing and Root cause analysis
• Diagramming Techniques include – Cause & Effect diagrams, flowcharts, influence diagrams etc.
• SWOT Analysis intends on analyzing our project from the different perspectives like Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to widen the reach of risk identification
• The 7 basic tools of quality are not directly part of the PBMOKs list of tools that we can use in risk identification but they are very relevant both from proper risk management perspective as well as the RMP Examination perspective
• These 7 basic tools of quality are:

1. Cause & Effect Diagrams
2. Control Charts
3. Flow Charts
4. Histograms
5. Pareto Charts
6. Run Charts and
7. Scatter Diagrams

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