by Subrata Deb

Created on: March 11, 2008   Last Updated: October 26, 2009

Importance and steps for Project Risk Identification

The project risk management knowledge area is a very vital area which many of the Project Managers tend to overlook. A project risk is defined "An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs will have a negative or positive effect on one or more project objectives". In the real world there are always many risks for executing each and every project. To my view a good project manager is one who is not averse to the risks, but does plan in advance the possible mitigations if the risks occur. Risks can be positive opportunities or negative threats.

Risk Management involves identification of the possible risks from various sources and during various stages of the project. Analyze these risks and quantify their effect on the project. Then plan the mitigation for most of these identified risks.

In the practical field it is nearly next to impossible to identify all the risks which would affect the project, but the project manager should lead the team in identify about 85% 90% of the possible risks. The identification of the risk should be an iterative process and needs to be carried out in all the phases of the project. The earlier the risks can be identified the more easily the mitigation can be planned for the risks.

The risk identification process mostly starts by gathering the inputs which the project team would require to identify most of the risks which might affect the project.
1. Project Management plan: The Project management plan explains the project's mission, scope, time, the work breakdown structure, quality standard etc.
2. Risk Management Plan: This plan oversees how the risk management would be carried out throughout the tenure of the project. It would list who would do want and when for planning, analyzing and mitigating the risks or when they occur.
3. Scope Statement: It is very important to understand the scope of the project in order to identify the risks. The scope statement outlines the current scope of the project.
4. Historical documents: As the saying goes "history repeats itself", the project team should carefully study the historical documents for the similar projects undertaken by the organization before. The success / failure history of the earlier projects would help the team to identify the opportunities/risks which might affect this project based on the experience of the earlier executed projects.
5. Current environmental factors: The team also should study the current environmental

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