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Creating a new Risk

The Risk model uses the idea of Cause, Event and Effect this is to encourage you to analyse the risk in more detail.  Cause is considered the name of the Risk and sits at the top of the form, Event and Effect are optional.

A category and status must be picked for your risk from the available list, a default option is displayed. The contents of these lists can be altered in the File - Manage Lookups form, if this hasn’t been disabled by the template creator.

An Owner is required, either select from the pick list or type a new name in (this list is the resources list for this file and if using task and issue tabs as well will be shared across all three).

This is the minimum data set and you can now Create although we would recommend first rating your risk.

Rating a risk

Planner uses the idea of Inherent Risk (what the risk is rated as when it is first identified) and Residual Risk (what level the risk is rated as once any responses have been complete).  When working on a new risk these two measures are tied together so changes to the Inherent Rating are reflected in the Residual rating, once responses are identified and planned the Residual Rating can be unhooked and its values Identified directly so that there is a risk gradient between Inherent and Residual.

In PIAB default templates the Risk Rating is calculated based on three factors:

Impact - the significance of the risk occurring.  This is grades Negligible to severe with a 1-5 scoring associated with the terms.

Probability - the likelihood of the risk occurring.  This is selected as a % between 0% and 100% in 5% increments.

Proximity - how close is the potential risk event (a closer event is more of a problem as it is more difficult to manage.  This is selected as a term from Long Term to Now with values of 1-10 being associated to the terms.

The overall risk rating is a multiplication of the three factors and as such can range from 1x0%x1=0 through to 5x100%x10=50.

If you can put a monetary value on the risk occurring that can also be completed in expected value (there is no linkage between this and the impact selection made with the slider).

Your template creator may have changed your risk model so the selection options are different but the calculation model will be the same.

Updating a risk and Responses

If following a basic approach to Risk Management then as the understanding of the risk and its impacts develop, or are changed by your actions you can simply adjust in the Inherent sliding scale and keep notes on the risk and actions in the Comment tab.  Of course status changes on the general tab are also helpful.

If following a more sophisticated Risk Management approach then in addition to the comments you should use the Responses tab to create responses to the risks and manage these, updating them as they are managed to their result.  With this approach it is more usual to leave the Inherent rating untouched and to decouple the Residual rating and update that to reflect changes, this way the progress and success in addressing the potential risks can be identified.

If you are using Planner in a mode where both the Risk and Issue tabs are active you will be able to copy a Risk to the Issue area or have an Issue copied into the Risk area.  This is helpful when an item was initially misdiagnosed or an anticipated Risk happens and it is then therefore an Issue.

What can I do with my risk data?

If you are using Planner standalone or as a template from Community Edition then you can analyse your risks using views and export or print your results as required.

If using a PIAB commercial product your data will be available to be shown at project, programme or portfolio level combined with riskn information from other projects.

If using Small Team or Enterprise Editions you will be able to generate risk lists based on your chosen criteria and accumulated across all plans in the system as well as send people reminders based on the status and content of their risks by email.

‘This basic scheduling and risk management package provides all of the functionality that many users require.  And its free!’

Steve Cotterell, Project Manager Today

Read the full review here: PMT July 2012

The perfect companion planning tool simple to layout, schedule your projects and even resource them. Then share the files with anyone you want.  Easy to pick up and use even if you haven’t used MS Project before...if you have..well it’s like MS Project made easy.

Simple Plan Features

It does the following for free!

• Transfer your plan from MSProject
• Transfer your plan to MSProject
• Task name and further details
• Unique duration setting by fixed dates, start plus days or predecessor plus dates
• Add resources and allocation %
• Creates project resource list
• % complete by task
• Group tasks into summaries
• Auto calc  summary dates and %
• Task budget and cost control
• Task colours, comments and tags
• Move and copy tasks
• View interactive Gantt
• Click to edit and custom order tasks
• Alter display time frame
• Gantt as image in one click
• Save your plan and share for free
• Bundled with Community Edition
• Upload into PROJECT in a box to integrated into organisation wide resource and task management
• Risk logging, management, analysis and communications
• Issue logging, management, analysis and communications
• Import or export risks via Excel
• Completely FREE!

Or view full PIAB product matrix