risk management & analysis in a project

[frainbreeze]

hello

i guess its that time of year when theres an entire onslaught of dissertation questions...so heres my contribution to the pile..

im doing a final year dissertation in multimedia information systems. im just starting to breakdown elements of my Project Initiation Document (which as you probably already know, sets out an outline for the rest of my deliverables etc).

my question is, where do you think risk management/analysis of a project should go? does this occur in the PID only (with the contingency/resource plans)? or is it an ongoing evaluation at each milestone? the only place for certain (from what we've been taught anyways) is that there is a risk analysis in the review - i.e. risks involved with implementation.

any links or book recommendations (for IS project management, not Software project management which as i understand is another process) that you have found useful in the past would be greatly appreciated. i've found a lot of information on project management in general, but no specific "process/method" for when you should do a risk analysis in the project lifecycle...

just looking for some direction to help seperate the general fluff from specific stuff that i can use.

thanks in advance,

frainbreeze

If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving isn't for you.

 

[BNPMike]

The PID is a statement of intentions at a point in time. Its functions is to allow movement to the next action/phase. Risks and Issues Management is an on-going process. It therefore does not belong in any one deliverable/report. Normally people maintain a separate Risk/issues register. The PID would refer to this.

 

[BernardErtl]

Risks should be assessed when scheduling a project IMO. Here are a few interesting links:

Scheduling with Uncertain Durations (see 11.2-11.5)

Event Chain Methodology for Risk Management

Schedule Risk and Schedule Risk Analysis

HTH!

Bernard Ertl
eTaskMaker project planning software

 

[lucasnevant]

In my opinnion, there should be an ongoing evaluation. Milestones can be a good reference, but I would say that it depends on the specific nature of the project.

Once you have decided how to focus it, you might find useful the information on the OPEN Process framework.

http://www.donald-firesmith.com/

Lucas Rodríguez Cervera

http://www.nevant.com