- Have you heard about risk registers
and want to know how to create one?
Well, you're in luck.
Stayed tuned to this video,
because I'm going to share with you some simple techniques
that I use to create my risk register.
Now, if you really want to master your next project,
stay tuned to the end of this video,
because I have something really cool
to share with you that's going to highlight
what you need to know about project mistakes.
Hi, if you're new here, welcome.
My name is Adriana Girdler,
and on this channel, you're going to find
the best practical project management advice out there.
Now, if you're really interested
in learning about risk register,
I say let's get to it, right now.
What is a risk register?
Well, if you have done any type of project,
you know that risk occurs.
Something that you didn't plan for comes into play.
And so part of project management is risk management,
and the risk register is a tool
that we use to identify potential risks
that could possibly occur on a particular project
that you're working on.
When to create a risk register.
For some individuals, they may think,
oh, that should happen in the middle of the project.
But here's the thing:
A risk register should happen throughout the project.
You need to take a look at risks at the beginning
of the project, because I promise you,
you probably have some idea,
in the initial stages of a project,
what some potential risks are.
And as a project progresses, new risks are going to pop up,
or additional risks to the one that you identified,
may come to the surface, that you're going have to look at.
So a risk register is something
that you should always have in your mind's eye
and always be looking at throughout the cycle of a project.
Now, before we jump into the next aspect
of risk register, my goodness, I'm tongue-tied right now,
I'm going to ask you, if you don't mind,
if you're really enjoying what you're hearing so far,
please consider subscribing to this channel,
'cause it really helps us grow.
So let's get back to risk register.
What actually goes into a risk register?
Well, think of it as this:
It's items that are potentially going to come
to fruition that will derail your project.
You want to understand impact and probability,
and you also want to think about plans
that are going to help ensure that,
if that risk comes to fruition,
that you can somehow mitigate it.
Now, don't worry.
I have some examples for you and I'm going to walk through you,
how you can do your own risk register.
How to create a risk register, and what to include.
So it's really simple and straightforward,
which is why it's a no-brainer to have one,
and I'm going to share with you how I do mine.
So there's three simple parts.
So let's go to part one, which is risk identification,
and it's very simple.
It's where you identify the risk.
Now, I have for you a video that shows you one,
so I want us to go in it so you can see it.
Let's go check it out.
Okay, so now let's actually go in
and take a look at a risk identification table.
So this is where you can start collecting
all of your risks.
So for this project example that
I want to give you was called,
it was for a procurement project
and we were implementing a future state
that we all created, collectively, as a group.
Now, I had quite a few risks on this project,
but I just want to show you one example.
So based on the table, there's three areas
that you're going to look at.
You're going to look at, what is the actual risks,
so what can go wrong?
What's the cause of the risk,
why it can go wrong, and effects,
which is the impact on project purpose
and deliverable, that, if that risk should come
to fruition, what would happen?
So let's take a look at this one example
that I want to set up for you.
So this risk, for this project,
which actually was a real problem,
it was, the current state process may be changed
or tweaked while we're implementing the new process.
This organization had a habit of,
as soon as something was going to be implemented,
people wanted to start working on it,
and they started to do their own thing.
So that was a huge risk for us.
We had to identify it.
So why can it go wrong?
So let's understand that.
Well, the side projects actually exist
for this overall future state that we were looking to do,
and that everyone is kind of siloed in their approach
and execution and they're not thinking
outside of their own projects
and how the change will impact the new process.
So as I said, they're really excited
to get things done and they're just implementing stuff.
Now, here's what's really important
with your risk identification,
and that is, the future state process does not work,
and this is the effect, if it should come to fruition,
because our solutions are based on the old slash,
quote-unquote, I guess old,
quote-unquote, the current ways of working.
And because of all the tweaks and changes,
which is the cause of why it can go wrong,
we're unable to implement our future state
that we've created because the old ways
of working don't exist anymore,
because there's new ways of working,
and what we're implementing is not addressing,
originally, what it was meant to address.
So that's a huge risk on this project.
So here's how you identify, and you just go through that,
collectively, in the group.
You would then go, what's your second risk, your third risk?
And you'd go through the risk, the causes, and the effects.
Part two, risk ranking.
Now, this is just taking the risk,
and then analyzing it, to see,
what's the probability of that risk occurring or not?
Let's go back to the example.
Now that we have our risks all laid out
and we have identified them,
we now have to do a risk ranking.
So we now, to list all of our risks,
all of our risks that we list over in the previous table,
we're going to bring them down here.
So you can see I brought over the one risk
that I used in an example for you
and I placed it as number one.
I could have another risk.
I'll place it in number two, number three,
and you'll see these little dots here.
That's really important.
They correlate to the risks.
So number one indicates that it's this number one risk.
If I had a second risk here,
it would be number two, et cetera.
So now let's take a look at how we do this ranking,
and it's actually very simple, but impactful.
So we have this grid here that allows us,
collectively, as a group, as a team,
and with key stakeholders, to figure out,
what should we be doing?
So based on the two axes, so an y-axis
and the x-axis, we're going to look at impact
on one side, which is minor, moderate,
major, and critical.
So this is, if the risk should come to fruition,
how would it impact the project?
Would it be a minor impact?
Would it be a moderate impact?
A major, critical?
Would we kill the project and have a big issue?
And the other area we look at, which is a probability.
So how likely is it going to happen?
Unlikely, possible, likely, very likely?
And so this becomes really powerful,
because now we're going to take our risk,
and collectively, as a group, we're going to talk about it,
and we're going to place our dot where we think it's going to be.
And in this instance, we actually, as a group,
decided that, whoa, if this risk came to fruition,
that, because the current state processes are tweaked,
and that's going to impact our project
and what we're trying do to from a deliverable,
that it has a huge, huge critical impact
in us doing what was supposed to be done.
And the likelihood of that happening,
based on the information, is very likely,
'cause we know that that's a habit
within the organization,
and there's these other side projects.
So it's really important, because once you're done,
you get to see everything
that is sitting within the red zone,
which is stuff you should definitely be looking at,
your gray zone, which is things that,
depending on how much you have in the red,
you may want to deal with this.
And then you have this kind of neutral zone,
where if you have time, and perhaps
you're not as busy with these other risks,
you may want to look at it.
You may not.
It's really going to be dependent upon the group
and what you decide to do.
But this is how you rank the risks.
By the way, this risk-planning template
and all the information, and additional stuff
that is just gonna help you with your projects,
I want to let you know is in
my SLAY Project Management Course.
So if you're interested, at all,
to really get great at project management
in a practical way, consider checking it out.
I actually have the link for you under this video.
Number three, and risk planning.
So this is the actual plan that
you're going to now create against the risks
that you've ranked and you've selected.
So there's two types of plans you need to think about.
One is a mitigation plan.
So what are you going to do to help minimize a risk
coming to fruition?
So based on the example that we were looking at
on my computer earlier on, one of the mitigation plans
you'd do for that current state being switched over
and being changed, that was going to impact
your future state map that you're trying to implement,
is you want to bring it to everyone's attention,
of senior management and those in types
of positions who could control changes being made,
to say, look, it's going to have an impact.
So you want to educate people.
You want to bring them in the loop.
You want to maybe even include them
in weekly meetings on progress
to ensure that they understand
what you're doing so that they're
not going to rush into making those changes
on their own, which will impact your project.
Now, the other type of plan is contingency plan,
and this is really plan B.
What will happen, or what will you do,
if it should come to fruition?
So someone already went in, made changes,
and you find out and you're like,
oh, my goodness, this is totally going to impact.
So what do you do?
So a potential plan B is, you'll call an emergency meeting,
you'll bring all the key players together,
and you may even have them revert back to the old ways.
And again, it's a combination of the two
that you're going to put in place so that,
if things were to come to fruition,
you are not scrambling, trying to figure out,
oh, my goodness, what do I do?
You actually know, quite clearly,
what it's going to be, and you probably would have shared
that in advance with some senior people
to ensure that they're on the same page, too.
It is so helpful to have really strong risk contingency
and mitigation plans.
Okay, if you're here, you've stuck around to the end,
and I want to thank you, and as my thanks to you,
is I'm going to share with you this,
how to avoid project mistakes, and it's free, just for you,
and the link to get this is underneath this video.
Risk registers are important,
but knowing how to avoid mistakes,
in combination with it, is just really powerful.
So I highly recommend that you get it.
On that note, have a great day,
and I'll see you at the next video.