Communicating Risk

Open and Honest Communication – Everyone should be involved in the Project Risk Management process. Any actions or attitudes that hinder communication about project risk reduce the effectiveness of Project Risk Management in terms of proactive approaches and effective decision-making

© 2009 Project Management Institute. Practice Standard for Project Risk Management

As risk is something that may or may not happen, many project managers and organisations to not see the value in pro-actively managing risk … In fact, many project managers quickly run around at the end of the project updating their Risk Registers for in case they may be audited. Project risk management is not a once off event and cannot take place in isolation. Success relies heavily on communication and participation of everyone involved in the project throughout the process.

In this issue of our Professional Development Package (PDP), we will focus on the practical application of key risk management tools and techniques which will enhance your chance of project success. The topic is called Communicating Risk – taking care of the uncertainty that matters, and we learn how to more effectively managing risk and reduce the overall risk profile on the project using the Risk Register, Probability and Impact Matrix and Probability, Proximity and Impact Matrix.

We will also learn that by applying these tools and techniques on your project you will achieve instant success in terms of growing the risk management maturity of your organisation, stakeholders and project participants resulting in improved project delivery.

The PDP starts with an e-learning module, that will take approximately 15 minutes to complete, and gives you an overview of the topic. Next, we will deepen our knowledge by examining the matter further in the knowledge pack – that could either be read on on-line or downloaded as a hard copy.

After this, you will apply your newly acquired skills and carry out the assignment. Finally, after passing an on-line exam, you will be able to instantly apply what you have learned in the work place as well as claim your PDU points, should you be a certified Professional.