How to Handle New and Emerging Risks: The business environment, the global economy, technology—they’re all constantly evolving. Positive or negative, these changes have a direct impact on project risk. And that means risk management must evolve as well. Here, two project practitioners offer insight on new project risks, why these risks are emerging and how project professionals can effectively handle them.
Cutting Projects and Resources
The new risk: The global economy may be on the slow road to recovery, but many organizations are still prone to pulling the plug on projects and cutting staff, says Brian Grafsgaard, PMP, PgMP, director of professional services, QBS, Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA.
“Many organizations have become more risk-averse waiting for the economy to turn around rather than treating it as an opportunity to differentiate themselves by investing in new products and services, or expanding their reach in existing market,” he says.
As a result, project professionals are under a microscope to deliver results more efficiently and cost-effectively, and create business value—often while short-handed or with reduced budgets—he says.
How to handle it: Portfolio and program management ensure organizational resources are invested wisely. “Program and portfolio managers can see how resources can be optimized across all projects,” Mr. Grafsgaard says. “At the project level, project managers don’t always have visibility into that.”
Additionally, portfolio and program management can help project professionals maintain continual alignment with organizational strategy.
“As a project manager, you’re measured on delivering the agreed-upon scope on time and on budget, so you are by nature more resistant to change,” he says. “At the program or portfolio level, you have to embrace change. You have to identify, ‘Is there really a need for the result of this project?’ or ‘Has the landscape shifted so this is no longer a market we are after?’”
In addition, risks can be managed from the top down, bottom up, and across organizational initiatives and influences, he says.
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