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

Prev: Other Tools & Techniques

Next: Overview of Risk Communication

Overview of the Tools & Techniques used in Risk Identification

In the previous chapter, we took a very detailed look at all the inputs that we are going to use in the Identify risks process. Now we have all the information we need to proceed further. Logically speaking the next step would be to do something with all the information we gathered in the previous step in order to identify the risks that may affect us. Isn’t it?

The technical term for this “Do Something” is “Use some Tools and Apply some Techniques” on those inputs. There are a total of 7 Tools & Techniques that we will be using in order to identify the list of all potential risks in our project by using the inputs we collected in the previous chapter. They are:

1. Documentation Review
2. Information Gathering Techniques
3. Checklist Analysis
4. Assumptions Analysis
5. Diagramming Techniques
6. SWOT Analysis and
7. Expert Judgment

Expert Judgment is one tool or technique that I can’t possibly explain here because it depends on the expert judgment of the person doing the risk identification. So, I will only be covering all the remaining techniques.

Some of these tools & techniques have sub-items as well.

Information Gathering includes:

a. Brainstorming
b. Delphi Technique
c. Interviewing and
d. Root Cause Analysis

Diagramming Techniques include:

a. Cause & Effect Diagrams
b. System/Process flowcharts
c. Influence Diagrams
d. Etc.

To remind us all of the goal or purpose of this whole exercise, the output of this “Application of Tools & Techniques” on the “Inputs” identified in the previous chapter is to “Create the Risk Register” which will be the master list of all possible risks that can affect our project. This register will be updated in all the subsequent process of risk management. Remember the Risk Register Update Cycle?

Identifying all potential risks is not an easy process and requires a lot of time and dedicated effort along with sound understanding of risk management processes. If I start explaining all these tools & techniques in this chapter, it will be too lengthy. So, let us take a look at each of these tools one by one in the subsequent chapters.

Prev: Inputs used in Risk Identification

Next: Documentation Reviews