1. Realise what risks you face
Before any project stage begins gather in a room people representing all functions (IT, business, etc.) involved in the project.
Brainstorm: what could cause difficulties/failure in the project?
Having brainstormed, go through this checklist to see if it highlights anything the brainstorm missed.
When answering a question, if you don't know, answer 'no'. Any 'no' implies some risk. You must judge how much: a risk that would cause project failure and is likely to happen is a high risk!
This checklist is an aide memoire not a miracle cure for risk.
2. Identify risk reduction actions
In the meeting identify how risks can be eliminated, reduced or managed. Or, assign each risk to one person for action after the meeting. Project Support may have records of how previous projects have successfully addressed the risks you face.
3. Speak to the sponsor
Ensure the project sponsor understands and accepts remaining, significant risks. Significant means quite likely to happen and big impact if they happen.
4. Keep risks under review
Monitor risk status during the project, take action to keep risks at bay, report on risk status. You may want to assign the management of each risk to a member of the team.
5. Share experience
Get Project Support to update this checklist to add risks which you have identified but which aren't on this checklist. Tell Project Support how you managed risks successfully so that this experience can be made available to other project managers.
Note: before a multi stage project you may want to conduct two risk assessments: one for the whole project as far as you can foresee it, and one for the stage you are about to begin.
An inadequate or unsupported business case may result in the project being cancelled.
| 1. Is there a written cost/benefit analysis for the project | Yes / No |
| 2. Is the business case quantified (£, $, Euros) | Yes / No |
| 3. Does the business case include all project costs (e.g. user time, training) | Yes / No |
| 4. Have Finance/Internal Audit validated the business case | Yes / No |
| 5. Has the Board approved the business case | Yes / No |
| 6. Has project funding been approved | Yes / No |
| 7. Is there a commitment to re-evaluate the business case before each project stage | Yes / No |
| 8. Does the project manager believe the project is justified | Yes / No |
Lack of support may result in resource shortages, slow decision making and unjustified criticism.
| 1. Is there a project sponsor | Yes / No |
| 2. Does the sponsor have authority to resolve all project conflicts | Yes / No |
| 3. Is the sponsor accountable for the project's success or failure | Yes / No |
| 4. Is the sponsor accountable for delivery of the project's benefits | Yes / No |
| 5. Will the same person sponsor the project from start to finish | Yes / No |
| 6. Too senior a sponsor may result in a lack of interest - is the sponsor's seniority appropriate for the project | Yes / No |
| 7. Will heads of functions involved in the project sit on a project steering committee | Yes / No |
| 8. Do all functions involved (business areas, IT, etc.) support the project | Yes / No |
| 9. Does the project manager believe the project has sufficient business backing | Yes / No |
| 10. If external parties are involved (e.g. consultants) does the business see these external parties as worth their fees | Yes / No |
| 11. If the project is a joint venture (e.g. between 2 companies) is there a single sponsor | Yes / No |
| 12. Are clear project completion and success criteria agreed by the business | Yes / No |
| 13. Is there a one sentence project goal which everyone buys in to (write it below) | Yes / No |
A company that does not understand projects can have problems when undertaking them.
| 1. Does the company understand that project authorities override company organisation, seniorities and authorities. | Yes / No |
| 2. Does the company understand that a project hierarchy is a temporary structure in which more senior employees may report to more junior employees | Yes / No |
| 3. Will people from different functions (marketing, customer service, IT, etc.) be able to work together co-operatively as a team | Yes / No |
| 4. Is the company able genuinely to empower project team members to make decisions on behalf of their part of the company | Yes / No |
Projects of a new or unfamiliar kind can cause unexpected and unfamiliar problems.
| 1. Is the project similar in size to any previous, successful project | Yes / No |
| 2. Is the project similar in nature to any previous, successful project | Yes / No |
| 3. Is company policy in the area addressed by the project likely to remain stable throughout the project | Yes / No |
| 4. Has a project of this size been successfully completed in a similar timescale before | Yes / No |
| 5. Express the IT effort of the (sub)project in months. Find the square root. Is the project's planned duration greater than the square root of the IT effort | Yes / No |
| 6. If the project is modifying an existing system/process/etc. is that system or process well understood, of good quality and stable | Yes / No |
| 7. If the end date or budget is fixed, is the project manager empowered to adjust the project scope | Yes / No |
| 8. Is the project not dependent upon anything beyond the project manager's control | Yes / No |
| 9. Have sub-contractors' management and quality processes been audited | Yes / No |
| 10. If the project is business critical, will extraordinary measures be taken to ensure its success (full time resources, executives on call to project manager, fast track approval for funds & people, etc.) | Yes / No |
If the project is unwieldy, or the project team do not understand what has to be done and when during the project, many problems and errors will result.
| 1. If the total project is large, will delivery be broken into a number of releases | Yes / No |
| 2. Will the scope of the release about to begin be determined during project definition | Yes / No |
| 3. Are all releases/sub-projects less than 10 months from the end of project definition to cutover into live use | Yes / No |
| 4. Will business requirements be defined, in detail, before starting to design solutions to those requirements | Yes / No |
| 5. Will business volumes be estimated as part of the requirement analysis step | Yes / No |
| 6. Does every member of the project team understand the 'manufacturing' process to be used in the project | Yes / No |
| 7. Are there clear standards to which each project deliverable will conform | Yes / No |
| 8. Has the content of each project deliverable been determined (e.g. what will be in the User Functions Design document) | Yes / No |
| 9. Have you agreed who will sign off and accept each project deliverable | Yes / No |
| 10. Is the project using processes, techniques and technologies that have been used before within the company | Yes / No |
| 11. Is the project using processes, techniques and technologies that are in use elsewhere | Yes / No |
| 12. Do those who will use the project's outputs (the 'users') understand the perils of change during a project | Yes / No |
| 13. Will the project manager be measured on the quality of what the project delivers | Yes / No |
| 14. If the project is installing a package, has the business agreed in principle to re-engineer their business processes to match what the package does | Yes / No |
All involved in the project must understand their responsibilities, be empowered and be available.
| 1. Is there a project organisation chart | Yes / No |
| 2. Is each project role filled | Yes / No |
| 3. Are each person's responsibilities and accountabilities defined | Yes / No |
| 4. Has each person agreed to perform their role | Yes / No |
| 5. Is someone responsible for the Health and Safety of the project team | Yes / No |
| 6. Has the project manager managed a project of this nature before | Yes / No |
| 7. Is a project user manager in place who is empowered to resolve inter-user disputes | Yes / No |
| 8. Does one person have the responsibility of signing off and accepting projects outputs e.g. user functions design on behalf of the users/customer | Yes / No |
| 9. Have the team leaders lead teams before | Yes / No |
| 10. Is the project manager full time on the project | Yes / No |
| 11. Are the team leaders full time on the project | Yes / No |
| 12. Will the project manager remain in place for the whole project | Yes / No |
| 13. In the project manager's opinion are roles properly defined and accepted, are those people empowered to perform their roles, and will they really be available | Yes / No |
First, list all the skill groups you will need (e.g. business analysts, specific business knowledge, internal audit, architects, etc.), then copy this page so you have a page for each skill group.
SKILL GROUP:_________________________________
| 1. Will enough resource be available | Yes / No |
| 2. Are representatives (e.g. of business areas) empowered to make decisions on behalf of those they represent | Yes / No |
| 3. Will the people be full time on the project | Yes / No |
| 4. Have the people got appropriate experience | Yes / No |
| 5. Have the people done similar project tasks before | Yes / No |
| 6. Are the people employees (as opposed to contractors) | Yes / No |
| 7. Do you know the names of the people who will be assigned to the project | Yes / No |
| 8. Will the project team get on with each other | Yes / No |
| 9. Will all team members stay until the end of the project, or at least until the project no longer needs them | Yes / No |
| 10. In the opinion of the project manager do we have the right quantity and quality of people assigned to the project in order to make it a success | Yes / No |
| 11. Have the project manager and key team members attended a course that teaches how to manage projects (such as the project management course run by hraconsulting) as opposed to a course that teaches a methodology such as Prince 2 | Yes / No |
Unrealistic estimates and plans will obviously cause major difficulties.
| 1. Are estimates the result of detailed research, as opposed to finger-in-the-air guesstimates | Yes / No |
| 2. Has the actual cost of previous projects been used when estimating this project | Yes / No |
| 3. Is contingency for risks included in the estimate | Yes / No |
| 4. Is a change budget included in the estimate | Yes / No |
| 5. Are holidays, education and sickness allowed for in estimates and plans | Yes / No |
| 6. Are quality checks included in estimates and plans | Yes / No |
| 7. Is time allowed for supervision of less experienced team members | Yes / No |
| 8. Has the quality of anything already delivered by the project been good | Yes / No |
| 9. Has each member of the project team signed their project plan to confirm they can achieve it | Yes / No |
| 10. Is there a clear statement of how the quality of deliverables will be checked and measured | Yes / No |
| 11. Has the plan been independently reviewed, e.g. by Project Support | Yes / No |
| 12. Is it understood that knowing how to plan a project is not the same as knowing how to use a planning tool | Yes / No |
| 13. Is the project manager accountable for actuals matching estimates | Yes / No |
| 14. Has the project manager produced the estimate, as opposed to inheriting it from someone else | Yes / No |
| 15. Is the project manager confident that the stage, or project, will end up costing roughly the amount now being quoted as the estimate | Yes / No |
If the plan does not contain all necessary activities and update authority is unclear the plan may fall into disuse.
| 1. Will the plan be revised as you go along | Yes / No |
| 2. Is it clear who can change what in the plan without higher approval | Yes / No |
| 3. Is every member of the project team aware of where they fit into the overall plan | Yes / No |
| 4. Does the plan include team meetings | Yes / No |
| 5. Will every project output undergo a quality check | Yes / No |
| 6. Does the plan include the production of technical and user documentation | Yes / No |
| 7. If the team is in more than one location are good communication mechanisms in place | Yes / No |
| 8. Does the plan include activities designed to 'sell' the project to its customers | Yes / No |
| 9. Does the plan include team lessons learned meetings at the end of each stage | Yes / No |
| 10. Will the plan be displayed publicly | Yes / No |
| 11. Does the plan include implementation activities | Yes / No |
If management and reporting mechanisms are not in place before the project starts, confusion can result.
| 1. Will the project team all be located together | Yes / No |
| 2. If there could be conflict between factions, are team building events planned | Yes / No |
| 3. Is it clear who will report what when and to whom | Yes / No |
| 4. Is there an agreed process for resolving issues | Yes / No |
| 5. Will business requirements remain firm and unlikely to change | Yes / No |
| 6. Is there an agreed change evaluation and approval process | Yes / No |
| 7. If there are several sub-projects, are there processes for managing cross sub-project issues and changes | Yes / No |
| 8. If external suppliers are involved, have they agreed to report their status, progress and outlook regularly | Yes / No |
| 9. Will project progress be reported to the eventual end user | Yes / No |
| 10. Will objective, numerical data be included in status reports | Yes / No |
| 11. Will outlook-to-completion be revised each time project status is reported | Yes / No |
| 12. Will the status of significant risks be reported upon | Yes / No |
| 13. Will team leaders ensure work claimed as complete by their team really is complete | Yes / No |
| 14. Will the project manager receive detailed plan vs actual data from team leaders each week, including quality management data | Yes / No |
| 15. Will the project manager be located close to or amongst the project team | Yes / No |
There is not much point delivering project outputs if people are not ready to use them!
| 1. Are implementation activities included in the project plan | Yes / No |
| 2. Do the users know when implementation will be | Yes / No |
| 3. Are the users ready, willing and able to change working practices | Yes / No |
| 4. Are plans in place to change working procedures | Yes / No |
| 5. Is user training included in the project plan | Yes / No |
| 6. Does someone have responsibility for managing the realisation of project benefits | Yes / No |
| 7. Are plans in place to establish a help desk | Yes / No |
| 8. Is someone responsible for calling a post implementation review of the business case | Yes / No |
If others do not share your assessment of the risks you might not get support in reducing them.
| 1. Is the project manager's view of the risks shared by senior management | Yes / No |
| 2. In the project manager's opinion, what is the one thing most likely to cause project failure? Does the sponsor share this opinion | Yes / No |
You might wish to list here any risks which you have identified which are not on the checklist. No checklist will ever contain all the risks any given project will face.
| 1. At the end of several sections has been a question 'in the opinion of the project manager...'. Is there clearly one person, the project manager, who has been answering those questions | Yes / No |
| 2. If no, the project has a major risk: no real project manager. Please tell the project sponsor. If there is no clear project sponsor either, take a long vacation. |
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