Introduction.
Wondering if you can cut the mustard as a Project Manager? Well, just ask yourself which of these three types most closely matches you, are you the sort to: make things happen, have things happen to them or just sit around wondering “what happened”? If you’re not in then first category – forget a life as a Project Manager as you’ll never be prepared to take risks nor, indeed, be capable of managing risks or dealing with their issues.
Project Management Risks.
With the best will in the world at some point even a smoothly running project will not go exactly to plan. Even if it’s only a small problem it could quickly escalate into something that could derail the whole project – and so it needs dealing with quickly and effectively. This is where the Project Managers ability to assess a risk and deal with issues needs to come to the fore. First off don’t look around for someone else to blame for the problem – that won’t help solve it and will only serve to waste time and effort.
Risks and issues.
Within your plan, remember that’s what we talked about last time, you should have identified the risks to your project – so a risk is something that might happen. If/when it does happen, then it becomes an issue to be dealt with. Again, within your plan you should have state the likely contingencies that will be necessary to deal with the risks you identified in the plan, so if/when the issue arises you should have a plan ready and waiting to swing into action. Having said that, as the project progresses some risks may become more likely to occur, so the action plan to deal with them will need updating as the project progresses. So, in summary, when it comes to risks and issues: Identify the risks, have an action plan to deal with the issues and then constantly monitor and manage them.