A five slides presentation from the Team at Portfolio Software

Managing your project risks

Managing your project risks

1. Passive mitigation is free, active mitigation costs money choose wisely

2. Decide what truly is important to your company, don’t spend money if it is not

3. If you have something business critical, it is critical that you protect it

4. If there is nothing you can do (afford) to mitigate a risk then don’t spend too much time trying

5. Edge your bets if possible, a little thought can be re-used both in and across projects

Funds are finite, mitigate wisely

Managing your project risks

1. Determining business benefits is not a one-off activity, it should be a regular assessment

2. If business benefit changes, your project may be doomed. If so, stop it quickly

3. ROI is difficult to assess, be objective. It can both protect and doom your project

4. A completed project with no business benefit is money, time and resource all wasted

5. When thinking project dependencies, include ROI/Business benefit as standard

The Business benefits can change quickly, reassess regularly

Managing your project risks

1. A good supplier will know many of the risks, check that they do

2. A good supplier will have mitigated much of the risk, ask how they do it

3. Mitigating against your bad supplier is difficult (especially within a project)

4. A good supplier will warn you of problems early, a bad one will hide them

5. If you are not prepared, you are a risk to your supplier. It works both ways

External Suppliers can reduce and increase risk, choose the right one

Managing your project risks

1. Having an expert is fantastic, but only one ? – think broken leg, now what?

2. Risks can cascade, lots of small risks can create a cascade to disaster. Mitigate to stop a cascade

3. Spread team knowledge, your resource is much more difficult to replace than a hard drive

4. Hard drives are cheap, duplicate data

5. Prepare a contingency plan, don’t wait until your product has failed in the live environment

Reduce the risk

Managing your project risks

1. Risk changes – it does not remain static so re-assess regularly

2. Put somebody in charge of each risks, ownership is key

3. Make risks visible, encourage people to view them

4. Your team can be innovative, let them mitigate (you would be surprised !)

5. Never hide your risks, if you have a new one broadcast it

Re-assess regularly, it’s not a duty, it is a necessity

Portfolio Software was formed in 2002

We deliver great software solutions - you won't get what you expect from Portfolio Software. You'll get more.

We take a different approach to software development, blending the strengths of best practices and methodologies - not just limiting our options to one. Our long-range vision focuses on your immediate needs first, developing a solution and a roadmap for future expansion.

We work successfully with distributed teams - we recognise that the world is flat

We are well versed with delivering solutions with teams distributed across 5 continents. We recognise the need, mitigate the risks and embrace the complexity.

We use industry standard processes - successful Delivery of Your Solution is our Prime Directive

Whether Agile or Waterfall, we pick the best method and process for the delivery of your solution. We manage the full lifecycle and have an open and transparent working policy which means we keep you with us every step of the way.

Contact us:

Tel: +44(0)845 644 7855

Email: info@portfoliosoftware.co.uk