The traditional term in Risk Management is Risk Mitigation. That is you mitigate the risk.
As a verb Mitigate \ˈmi-tə-ˌgāt\ means
to cause to become less harsh or hostile. To make less severe
Using this definition, we come back to the question that always exists:
- What are the units of measure of harsh?
- How can we measure that we are in fact making the risk less severe?
- In the pursuit of mitigation what are the impacts on cost, schedule, and the technical performance of the outcomes of the projects
To answer these questions we need a map that shows the consequences of mitigating a risk. This map must show the connections between the risk mitigation work and the standard work. It must show the impact of risk handling on cost and schedule in the presence of Management Reserve.
Making these impact visible is part of the overall Integrated Master Plan (IMP). The IMP is the strategy for the successful completion.
So Here's the Steps
- Build the Risk Registry in the standard way.
- Identify each risk and it's impact in the outcomes of the Work Packages
- Determine how to handle the risk
- If the handling strategy is to Buy Down the risk, the construct a Work Package, assign budget and place that Work Package in the Control Account and on the Integrated Master Schedule
- If the handling strategy is to Mitigate when the risk comes true, then put a lean on Management Reserve for that risk and be prepared to BCR (Budget Change Request) the Control Acccount with a new Work Package to deal with the risk.
But no matter what you do, make all the risks visible, make all the handling strategies visible, for all planned work, put it on baseline. For all risk handling work awaiting a decision, identify the handling strategy and the funds needed to do the handling, and the source of those funds.
