(upbeat music)
- Every project carries risk,
no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
But risk doesn't have to lead to failure.
With some forethought and planning,
you can get a handle on project risk
before it upends your success.
Let's take a look at different types of project risks
to look out for
and walk through some simple steps
you can take to identify, monitor,
and manage risks in your projects.
In project management, risk refers to an event or situation
that has the potential to impact a project if it occurs.
And while it's easy to assume all risk is bad,
these impacts could either have a positive
or negative effect on the project.
It's less about the outcome
and more about the uncertainty of factors
that could cause your plan to shift for better or worse.
There are a lot of different types of risks
in project management.
So, how do you know what to look for?
Well, let's start by defining the two broadest categories:
internal versus external.
Internal risks exist within your organization
and are easier for you and your team to mitigate and manage.
External risks happen outside of your organization
and are typically beyond your control
as a team or project manager.
Once you've got a few projects under your belt,
you'll start to notice
that some project risks pop up more than others.
Here are three common types you should look out for
in any project you manage.
Cost risk is anything that affects your ability
to stick to the project budget,
whether it's the result of scope creep
or overly optimistic project estimates.
Schedule risk refers to any factors
that jeopardize project deadlines.
These may include pop-up feature requests,
a team member who's out sick for an extended time,
or unexpected delays in supply delivery.
Performance risk impacts project goals and outcomes.
This could result from a lack of stakeholder support,
an overworked team, or misaligned project expectations.
Of course, those aren't the only project risks out there.
Depending on the type of project you're managing,
you may also need to monitor these categories.
Operational project risk refers to anything
that disrupts production
or keeps a project from actually delivering.
These are the project issues
created by your team or stakeholders
that tend to impact project budgets and timelines.
Governance risk affects leadership,
decision-making,
or the frameworks used to run a project or business.
Strategic project risk
impacts your ability to achieve project
or organizational goals over the short or long-term.
Market risk affects your ability to finance a project,
compete in the market,
or make a good return on investment.
Legal risks involves legal, contractual,
or regulatory guidelines or consequences your project
or organization is subject to.
External hazards include major events
that are difficult to predict or prevent,
like natural disasters, global pandemics,
labor strikes, or crime.
Talking about all the possible risks
that can impact your projects can be scary.
So, let's move on to some easy steps you can take
to keep risks in check.
You may not be able to eliminate every project risk,
but these tips and tools can help you identify and manage it
with a lot more confidence.
When everyone has different ideas or expectations
about what needs to be delivered,
it can put project deadlines, budgets, and goals at risk.
That's why working with your team and stakeholders
to define scope and project requirements
is always worth your time.
It's much easier to defend decisions
and keep scope in check when you've documented
and agreed upon project deliverables before work begins.
A risk assessment is a simple tool you can use
to identify and measure project risks,
so you can come up with a proactive plan for mitigation.
Here's how it works.
First, list out all the possible risks
your project could face.
Then, prioritize each risk
based on its severity and likelihood.
And finally, outline actions
that will help you manage or mitigate each risk.
Knowing what risks to watch out for
and how you'll address them
can go a long way in easing anxiety
for everyone involved in the project.
A project plan serves as the central source of truth
for your project,
so there's no question about what's happening when
and who's responsible.
It also makes it easy to spot issues early
and make wise decisions about change.
Here's how to use your project plan
to get ahead of risk in TeamGantt
What you don't know can come back to bite you
when it comes to project risk.
That's why it's important to monitor timelines and budgets
as work progresses to make sure everything's on track.
Here are two easy ways to do this in TeamGantt.
Check your project health report.
It breaks tasks down into three status categories:
on time, running behind, or overdue
so you can intervene early and prevent delays
from bogging down your entire project.
Compare progress with projections.
If you're on TeamGantt's advanced plan
with hourly estimates and time tracking,
you should see a thin striped line
at the center of each task bar.
If the stripe line is red,
the hours tracked on that task
have already exceeded the budget.
If the stripe line is longer than the progress indicated,
hours tracked are outpacing progress,
putting the budget and timeline at risk.
You rely on a lot of folks to make your project a success,
but bogging down your team with too many tasks
can tank productivity.
These simple steps can help you keep people busy
without burning them out.
Open all your active projects in a single Gantt chart.
Then, switch to the calendar view
to see where things get crunchy for your team.
You can adjust your timeline
or team assignments as needed from here
to prevent critical collisions.
You can view availability by the number of tasks
or hours assigned across all projects
without ever leaving your Gantt chart.
Good communication keeps confusion
and mismatched expectations
from sending your project sideways.
It also enables you to address risk early,
so you have more control over its impact on your project.
A communication plan establishes clear guidelines
for how and when information will be shared on your project.
Use it to set expectations for project updates,
meetings and collaboration tools,
and streamlined communication
with your team and stakeholders.
Don't forget, your project plan is a communication tool too.
In TeamGantt, you can collaborate on work
and upload documents directly to your plan
plus get email or Slack notifications,
so you don't miss important updates.
A project status report
keeps stakeholders up-to-date on progress
and makes risk a regular topic of project conversation.
After all, you can't fix
what you don't acknowledge or talk about.
Tracking risks in your status report
shows stakeholders you're keeping an eye out for issues
and allows you to work together to find solutions.
That way, you can adjust your plan as needed
to effectively manage risk.
Wanna be a better planner
so you can manage risk more easily?
Check out our Plan Up education hub for free resources
to help you create solid project plans
and get buy-in from your team and stakeholders.
Download our free guide to project planning,
plus simple scripts to help you make the case for planning,
and sign up for our free on-demand class
to learn how to create and sell a winning project plan.
And that's it for this video
on understanding and managing project risk.
I hope you found it helpful.
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Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.