Time to get out our road map. Make sure you map out accurate milestones to a final destination, but don’t forget risk mitigation. Have you ever followed google maps to find your destination was in the middle of a lake? I have!
Your road map is your project plan. This book starts out chapter 4 with planning for Murphy’s Law, which states, “Anything that can go wrong, will.” In project management, we know this as risk management, but most of the time you can expect things to go wrong up to half of the time, you just don’t know which half, so you need contingencies in the plan just in case any or all risks are realized. And inevitably you will experience some issues you didn’t know ahead of time were risks.
There are some templates that are really helpful to go along with your project management plans. For risk management…Start a risk register! And for realized risks, create a running issue log…
Here is my takeaway #20 from one of the most useful practical books in my field, “Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager”:
20) “Once you have brainstormed all the possible risks, evaluate them for both impact and probability. Then multiply the resulting numbers to find the ‘actual risk’ score.”
“By doing this evaluation, you’ll realize which risks absolutely need a plan and which ones are less likely to occur.”
The book describes risk management strategies with an acronym, “TAME is a thinking tool to help you filter through possible strategies to minimize risk.”
Transfer the risk: Shift it to a third party.
Accept the risk: Acknowledge it and deal with it if it occurs.
Mitigate the risk: Reduce its probability or impact.
Eliminate the risk: Do what you must to make it go away.
Note: This comes from Chapter 4 “Planning the Project: Milestone or Mirage?” (pages 81, 83)
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STORY TIME:
As I mentioned earlier, we set out for a family gathering on a trip to the lake. This was a nice little one-day vacation stop one summer. It was nice because my extended family had mostly planned it all. All we had to do was show up. What could go wrong?
This is my favorite question for writing a book, writing our business stories, or simply writing a risk management plan for your next project. Now, we don’t have to get crazy about planning every little detail of our lives. Depending on the size of a project, determines how much we should consider and then depending how likely each item is, determines how extensive our backup plans for those items should go. In this case, had I simply taken a look at the destination before we left, I would have realized that we needed to get off of the freeway at the next exit a 1/2 mile beyond what Google directed us to and we would have been in the parking lot.
In typical vacation mode, I simply asked my wife navigating in the passenger-side of the vehicle to type in the location on her phone and we followed it another 30 minutes around to the far side of the lake. The detour took us on a rocky road with potholes right up to the edge of the water. “You’ve arrived!” The phone declared. Now that I was stopped, I took a closer look at the image on her phone. The locator flag was actually in the middle of the lake; this was the closest access point by the road; so there we were with no boat or paddle, and some hot, restless, hungry kids, tired of driving in the van. The problems were compounding now. And somehow, it’s just harder dealing with the unexpected when you know it could have been avoided.
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It’s funny how we take for granted the conveniences we have. Our phones are right much of the time. But it helps to be prepared instead of rushing off without taking the time to think ahead and prevent more work or longer delays as a result. It helps to have a physical map on hand, in case your electrical devices run out of battery or internet/cell service. It helps to talk with other stakeholders, experts, or research more before setting out on the journey to get a better idea of what lies ahead from those who may already know the way firsthand. These resources can offer suggestions about what to look for or prepare for so risks of missing your exit, problems with inclement weather, checking for construction or traffic, or other risks specific to your project can be “transferred”, “accepted”, “mitigated”, or “eliminated”: in other words, planned for.
Here’s a formula the book mentions that helps you assess risks…
Impact x Probability = Risk (Scored on a scale of 1-5 “likeliness” for each category)