project risk management Examine each risk in the register Not all risks are created equal. Some of them are really likely to happen, while others are almost impossible. One risk will cause a catastrophe on your project if it happens; another will just waste a few minutes of someone's time. Risk data quality assessment means making sure that the information you're using in your risk assessment is accurate. Sometimes it makes sense to bring in outside experts to check out the validity of your risk assessment data. Sometimes you can even confirm the quality of the data on your own, by checking some sample of it against other data sources. Risk urgency assessment is checking out how soon you're going to need to take care of a particular risk. If a risk is going to happen soon, you'd better have a plan for how to deal with it soon, too. Risk categorization is all about grouping your risks so that you can come up with a better strategy for dealing with them. You might group them by the phase of the project where you'll see them or by the source of the risk. Or you could come up with a bunch of additional categories that would help you to organize your response better and be ready for the risk if it should happen. can help you Creating risk categories of risks in one deal with whole groups response plan. If a risk is going to occur early in the project, it's a good idea to think of a response strategy early, too. Risk probability and impact assessment One of the best ways to be sure that you're handling your risks properly is to examine how likely they are to happen, and how bad (or good) it will be if they do. This process helps you assign a probability to the likelihood of a risk occurring, and then figure out the actual cost (or impact) if it does happen. You can use these values to figure out which of your risks need a pretty solid mitigation plan, and which can monitored as the project goes on. Probability and impact matrix is a table where all of your risks are plotted out according to the values you assign. It's a good way of looking at the data so you can more easily make judgments about which risks require response. The ones with the higher numbers are more likely to happen and will have a bigger impact on your project if they do. So you'd better figure out how to handle those. Sometimes you'll find that some risks have obviously low probability and impact, so you won't put them in the main section of your register. Instead, you can add them to a separate section called the watchlist, which is just a list of risks, like those you don't want to forget about, but you don't need to track as closely. You'll check your watchlist from time to time to keep an eye on things. Probability Qualitative Risk Analysis helps you prioritize each risk and figure out its probability and impact. P&I .09 .27 .45 .63 .81 .07 .21 .35 .49 .63 .05 .15 .25 .35 .45 .03 .09 .15 .01 .03 .05 .21 .27 .07 .09 .9 .7 .5 .3 .1 Impact .1 .3 .5 .7 .9 you are here 4 523