Avoid the risk. Do something to remove it. Use another supplier for example.

Transfer the risk. Make someone else responsible. Perhaps a Vendor can be made responsible for a particularly risky part of the project.

Mitigate the risk. Take actions to lessen the impact or chance of the risk occurring. If the risk relates to availability of resources, draw up an agreement and get sign-off for the resource to be available.

Accept the risk. The risk might be so small, the effort to do anything is not worth while.

Risk Control: The final step is to continually monitor risks to identify any change in the status, or if they turn into an issue. It is best to hold regular risk reviews to identify actions outstanding, risk probability and impact, remove risks that have passed, and identify new risks. How do we manage it?

Summary

Risk management is not a complex task. If you follow the four steps, you can put together a risk management plan for a project in a short space of time. Without a plan, the success of the project, and your reputation as a Project Manager, are on the line.

This workshop-cum-lecture series is an endeavor to cover these concepts and a lot more in context of real life scenarios, so as to help us, the future managers, embark into this very lucrative and yet abstruse arena.

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Contributed by -
Annapurna Vishwanathan,
MBA - Batch of 2005-07,
Coordinator, Media Cell,
Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi.