Inputs Used in the Risks Identification Process

The Identify Risks process is all about figuring out all possible uncertainties or problem areas that may come to bite us in future. So, to ensure that we figure out all possible problems we need to look at a variety of project related areas. All these put together are known as the “Inputs” to the Risk Identification process.

Inputs Used in the Identify Risks process

We have successfully entered the Identify Risks process. This is where we are going to take a look at all possible inputs that can help us identify all possible risks that may affect us. We will be looking at every nook and cranny of our project to uncover as many risks as possible.

Trivia:

The 4th edition of the PMBOK Guide is the latest and we will be using the same in all our studies. If you have an older version of the PMBOK guide, the names of the processes or the inputs/outputs may be different. As both the exam as well as this blog is based on the 4th edition of the PMBOK guide, I suggest you upgrade to the same. If you are a PMI Member a soft copy of the 4th edition is available for download as a member benefit. Alternately you can even order a paper-back copy from PMI website or Amazon.

The following are the items that we will need while Identifying Risks:

1. Enterprise Environmental Factors
2. Organizational Process Assets
3. Risk Management Plan
4. The following documents/plans from the Project Management Plan

a. Cost Management Plan
b. Scheduled Management Plan
c. Quality Management Plan
d. Scope Baseline

5. Activity Cost Estimates
6. Activity Duration Estimates
7. Stakeholder Register
8. Other Project Documents like

a. Work Performance Reports
b. Earned Value Reports
c. Assumptions Log
d. Baselines
e. Network Diagrams
f. Etc.

As we saw in the chapter on “Managing Uncertainty” Uncertainties are sources of risks and they can exist anywhere in our project. The list above is basically a “Where” we will be looking for all those uncertainties that exist in our project so that we can address them appropriately. Let us now take a detailed look at each of these items.

A word of Caution:

It is never a good idea to memorize stuff blindly, esp. for certifications like the RMP that test our practical knowledge and understanding of Project Risk Management concepts. So, take your time, read and understand what each item is and why it is used. This way you will not only be a better risk manager, but also eliminating the need to memorize stuff.

1. Enterprise Environmental Factors

We have learnt what these enterprise environmental factors are many times in this blog. The factors that are relevant in our identifying risks area are:
a. Commercial Databases
b. Public & Industry studies

2. Organizational Process Assets

These again have been covered many times. The organizational process assets include files & data from previous projects. We can study what the actual risks were, the responses that we used and the actual outcomes of the responses. We can utilize this information to ensure that we do not commit the same mistakes as our predecessors. Looking at the lessons learned documents from previous similar projects would be a good idea too. Document Templates also come under this section.

3. Risk Management Plan

As you may have guessed correctly by now, the risk management plan comes as an input to every risk management process in our project that happens after it is created. As this document explains how risk management activities are to be carried out in our project, it is an indispensable resource. We will be using the following from the risk management plan:
a. Assignment of Roles & Responsibilities
b. Budget and Schedule provisions & allocations to Risk Management activities
c. Risk Breakdown Structure


4. Artifacts from the Project Management Plan

The following artifacts from the Project Management Plan will be useful for us in this step. An important point here is that, you need not remember all intricate details about these processes like inputs, tools & techniques, outputs etc. (like what we were forced to remember for the PMP Exam). But, you need to understand these items in detail to ensure that you are able to correlate all those areas from these artifacts that can contribute to the projects risk management area.

a. Scope Baseline

The scope baseline includes the Project Scope Statement along with any constraints & assumptions. As you might already know, wherever assumptions are involved, there are bound to be uncertainties and it is these uncertainties that we are looking for. Also, constraints can be a major source of risks.

The scope baseline contains a key artifact that will be very useful for us from a Risk Management perspective. If you have already done your PMP you must have guessed this by now…

“Work Breakdown Structure”

A Work Breakdown Structure is going to give us a detailed perspective of the project work that will be done including tasks and sub-tasks. By going through this WBS thoroughly we can uncover a lot of potential risk possibilities.

b. Cost Management Plan

The Estimating Costs and Determining Budgets process of Project Planning creates the Projects Cost Baseline or in other words the Project Budget. The approach used in managing the project costs can be a major source of risks. For ex: a project that is operating on a tight budget with little room for maneuvering has a great risk of cost overruns. On the other hand, if the project has good cost reserves planned already, then the risks go down accordingly.

c. Schedule Management Plan

The Develop Project Schedule process creates the Project Schedule. By understanding the Projects Schedule and the Schedule Management Plan will give us a good idea of whether the project is operating on tight deadlines or has any slack in terms of completion dates. As in the case of Projects Budget, projects operating on a tight schedule can have a great deal of risk in terms of schedule overruns.

d. Quality Management Plan

The approach to quality management in the project has a direct bearing on the project risks. A Project where a great deal of importance is given to quality related activities to produce a good quality work product usually has lower risks when compared to one that does not follow good quality practices. In cases where the quality or work done is compromised (for whatever reason it may be), risks are introduced.

Poor Quality Standards is a major source of risks in many projects. If we address the Quality aspect of our project, we will be eliminating a good number of risks at its source.


5. Activity Cost Estimates

The Cost Estimates are created in the Estimating Costs process and these estimates can give us a good idea of the likely cost involved in all the scheduled project activities. This way we can identify if the project is in any danger of cost overruns.

6. Activity Duration Estimates

The activity duration estimates are created in the Estimate Activity Duration process. The quality and accuracy of the estimates can have a direct impact on the risks. If the estimate is accurate then the risks of schedule overruns are low whereas if the estimates are rough or ball-park then the chances of schedule slippages are pretty high which in turn means high risk.

7. Stakeholder Register

The stakeholder register gives us details about the list of all people who have a stake in our project. We can use it to identify the high influence group of stakeholders and handle them accordingly. We can also use this document to invite all those important stakeholders to the risk related meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

8. Other Project Documents

There are a whole bunch of other project related documents that can be sources of risks or risk related information. Some of them are:

a. Work Performance Reports – The output of the Direct and Manage Project Execution process
b. Earned Value Reports – The output of the Measure Project Performance process
c. Assumption logs
d. Baselines (Cost, Schedule and Scope)
e. Network Diagrams – Created during the Develop Project Schedule process
f. Etc.

If you see closely, the scope baseline was considered as a separate input entity just a few paragraphs ago and has been mentioned again as part of the general term “Baselines” along with the Cost and Schedule baseline. Also, the Schedule Management Plan & the Cost Management Plan were covered already as inputs in detail and their baselines are considered here. This should give you a fair idea of the fact that the golden triangle “Scope-Time-Cost” are the key sources of risks for the Project and need to be investigated & analyzed thoroughly in order to minimize risks and to enhance the chances of the Project’s Success.

Apart from all the above mentioned inputs, any other document or information related to the Project that can be a source of risk or that can provide insights that will help in project risk management can be considered as input to this process.

Prev: Intro to Risk Identification

Next: Tools & Techniques used in Risk Identification

Chapter 10: Project Integration Management in Project Planning Phase

Aim: To understand the Process that falls under Project Integration Management. i.e., “Develop the Project Management Plan”

The project management plan process covers all activities that identify and direct the actions of many other processes in the planning process group. Developing the project management plan includes coordinating the development of the subsidiary plans and incorporating them into the complete project plan. The main purpose of the project management plan is to define how the project is to progress from its beginning to completion.

In short, the project management plan provides the high-level game plan for how the project moves through its lifecycle. PMI defines many potential subsidiary plans that make up the overall project management plan. These subsidiary plans provide the specific details for managing each aspect of the project from initiation through closure. The subsidiary project management plans could include

• Project scope management plan
• Requirements management plan
• Schedule management plan
• Cost management plan
• Quality management plan
• Process improvement plan
• Human resource plan
• Communication management plan
• Risk management plan
• Procurement management plan

One of the more common mistakes inexperienced project managers make is to confuse a project plan with a project schedule. The output from many common project management software packages do not qualify as a project plan. They are a good start, but a true project plan is made up of much more information than just scheduling information. This process requires a focused effort to create a plan that incorporates all known information about a project.

The Table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the develop project management plan process.

Develop Project Management Plan
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project charter Outputs from planning processes Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets	Expert Judgment	Project Management Plan

Exam Watch:
You will see “expert judgment” listed as a tool and technique for several processes. The meaning of “expert judgment” is specific to each process. In the context of the develop the project management plan process, expert judgment includes
• Tailor the process to meet the project needs
• Develop technical and management details to be included in the project management plan
• Determine resources and skill levels needed to perform project work
• Define the level of configuration management to apply to the project
• Determine which project documents are subject to the formal change control process

You can learn more about the Develop Project Management Plan process by Clicking Here

Prev: Chapter 9

Next: Chapter 11

Points to Remember: Project Integration Management

Integration Management Knowledge Area:

The Integration Management knowledge area brings all of the process groups together. A project manager has to integrate the work of everyone on the team through all of these major activities to keep the project on track:

1. Being authorized by the project charter to control the budget and assign resources
2. Planning all of the work that’s going to happen throughout the project.
3. Directing the work once it gets started
4. Monitoring the way the work progresses and looking for potential problems
5. Looking out for changes, understanding their impacts, and making sure they don’t derail the project
6. Closing out the project and making sure that there are no loose ends when it’s over

Initiating a Project:

1. The project charter officially sanctions the project. Without a charter, the project cannot begin.
2. The sponsor is the person (or people) responsible for paying for the project and is part of all important project decisions.
3. Develop Project Charter is the very first process performed in a project.
4. The project charter gives the project manager authority to do the project work, and to assign work or take control of project resources for the duration of the project. It also gives the project manager authority to spend money and use other company resources.
5. The business case tells everyone why the company should do the project. The project charter tells everyone that the project actually started, explains what it’s going to deliver, and authorizes the project manager to do the work.
6. The project charter does not include details about what will be produced or how. Instead, it contains the summary milestone schedule.
7. Two inputs to Develop Project Charter are the contract and the statement of work. The contract is what you agreed to do, although not all projects have a contract. The statement of work lists all of the deliverables that you and your team need to produce.
8. Enterprise Environmental Factors tell you how your company does business. An important one is the work authorization system, which determines how work is assigned, and makes sure that tasks are done in the right order.
9. Organizational Process Assets tell you how your company normally runs projects. One of the most important assets is lessons learned, which is where you write down all of the valuable historical information that you learn throughout the project to be used later.


Planning a Project:

1. Remember that the project management plan is formal—which means that it’s written down and distributed to your team.
2. You may get a question on the exam that asks what to do when you encounter a change. You always begin dealing with change by consulting the project management plan.
3. The work authorization system is a part of your company’s Enterprise Environmental Factors, and it’s generally part of any change control system. It defines how work is assigned to people.
4. The project management plan includes baselines: snapshots of the scope, schedule, and budget that you can use to keep track of them as they change.


Project Management Plan — Subsidiary Plans and Baselines:

The project management plan is the core of Integration Management. It’s your main tool for running a project. It consists of many subsidiary plans and baselines that will be used throughout the life of your project.

1. The scope management plan describes how scope changes are handled—like what to do when someone needs to add or remove a feature to a service or product your project produces.
2. The requirements management plan describes how you’ll gather, document, and manage the stakeholders’ needs, and how you’ll meet those needs with the project deliverables.
3. The schedule management plan shows you how to deal with changes to the schedule, like updated deadlines or milestones.
4. The cost management plan tells you how you’ll create the budget, and what to do when your project runs into money problems.
5. The quality management plan deals with problems that could arise when a product doesn’t live up to the customer or client’s standards.
6. You use the human resource plan to deal with changes in your staff, and to identify and handle any additional staffing needs and constraints you might have in your specific project.
7. The communications management plan lists all of the ways that you communicate with your project’s team, stakeholders, sponsors, and important contacts related to the project.
8. The risk management plan is about detailing all the bad things that might happen and coming up with a plan to address each risk when and if it occurs.
9. The procurement management plan focuses on dealing with vendors outside of your company.

There are three baselines in the project management plan.

1. The scope baseline is a snapshot of the scope, which helps you keep track of changes to the work that you’ll be doing and the planned deliverables you’ll be building.
2. The schedule baseline does the same for the project schedule, and
3. The cost performance baseline does the same for the budget.


The Monitor and Control Phase of a Project - Up Close

1. You start with information about how the work is being performed.
2. Next you figure out any changes that have to be made to the plans, and repairs that have to be made to the deliverables. Here, you let stakeholders know about the changes, and make sure everyone is in the loop with what you’re doing.
3. Once the changes and repairs are approved by the CCB, you send them back to the team to put them in place.

A change control board (CCB) is a group of people—usually including the sponsor—that approves or rejects changes. Any time a change goes through Integrated Change Control, the CCB decides whether or not it should be made. When they approve the change, you send it on to the team to implement.


Points to Remember - Other Topics:

Introduction to Projects & Project Management
Relationship Between Knowledge Areas & Process Groups
Project Scope Management
Project Time Management
Project Cost Management
Project Quality Management
Human Resource Management
Project Communication Management
Project Risk Management
Project Procurement Management
Ethics & Professional Responsibility

Chapter 26: Developing the Project Management Plan

In the previous chapter, we took a high level view of the importance of project planning and the inputs to the process of creating the project management plan. In this chapter, we are going to look at the exact process of developing the Project Management Plan.

So, lets get started!!!

Developing the Project Management Plan

Once the project has been initiated, it is time to do some planning. Project planning starts with the process of developing a project management plan, which defines, prepares, coordinates, and integrates all subsidiary plans, such as scope and risk management plans, into one big plan called the project management plan. The goal here is to develop a source of information that will work as a guideline for how the project will be planned, executed, controlled, and closed.
One reason why it is important to develop a project management plan is that not all projects need all the planning processes, and to the same degree. Therefore, the content of the project management plan will depend upon specific project that is being worked on. As the project goes through different stages, the project management plan may be updated and revised through the change control process.

Below are some issues that a Project Management Plan is expected to address.

1. Which project management processes will be used for this process, what the level of implementation for each of these processes will be, and what the inputs and tools and techniques for these processes are
2. How the changes will be monitored and controlled
3. What the needs and techniques for communication among the stakeholders are
4. How the project lifecycle looks, including the project phases if the project is a multiphase project
5. The lifecycle selected for the project at hand

Let us take a pictorial look at the process of creating the Project Management Plan.

As you can see, the Project charter, Enterprise Environmental Factors & Organizational Process assets along with the output of other planning processes are used as the input to this activity.

A project manager’s expertise is used extensively to process these and the project management plan is the output.

Depending upon the complexity of the project, the project management plan can be either a summary or a collection of subsidiary plans and components, which might include the following:

1. Standard plans from the project planning process group, such as the cost management plan, communication management plan, process scope management plan, and risk management plan.
2. Some necessary plans, which may not be generated by standard processes, such as a change management plan that describes how changes will be monitored and controlled.
3. Other components, such as the milestones list, resource calendar, and baselines for schedule, cost, and quality.

The process of developing the project management plan falls in the knowledge area of integration management because it coordinates the various processes and activities.

Now that the project management plan is ready, let us look into the details of one of the important parts of planning – Project Scope Management.

Prev: Introduction to Project Management

Next: Managing Scope