Unit 3

Software Project Management

Prepared By:
Jay Prakash Maurya
 Syllabus of Unit 3

• Activity planning: Objectives –

Project Schedule – Sequencing and
Scheduling Activities –Network
Planning Models – Forward Pass –
Backward Pass.
• Risk management: Nature Of Risk –
Types Of Risk – Managing Risk.
 Unit 3 – Part 1 - Activity planning

• Activity planning Objectives

• Project Schedule
• Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
• Network Planning Models
• Forward Pass & Backward Pass.
 Activity planning Objectives
• Methods for forecasting the effort required for a
project.
• A detailed plan for the project, however, must also
include a schedule indicating the start and completion
times for each activity.
o Ensure that the appropriate resources will be available
precisely when required;
o Avoid different activities competing for the same
resources at the same time;
o Produce a detailed schedule showing which staff carry
out each activity;
o Produce a detailed plan against which actual
achievement may be measured;
o Produce a timed cash flow forecast and Replan the
project during its life to correct drift from the target.
 Activity planning Objectives
• To be effective, a plan must be stated
– A set of targets
– The achievement
– Project monitoring

• As a project progresses it is unlikely that everything

will go according to plan. Project
management concerns recognizing when something
has gone wrong, identifying its causes and revising
the plan to mitigate its effects.

• The activity plan should provide a means of evaluating

the consequences of not meeting any of the activity
target dates. Activity planning aims to achieve a
number of other objectives which may be summarized
as follows.
Activity planning
Objectives
 Activity planning Objectives
• Feasibility assessment –
– Is the project possible within required timescales
– Resource constraints
– It is not until we have constructed a detailed plan that
we can forecast a completion date
– Depend upon the availability of staff and the degree to
which activities may be undertaken in parallel.

• Resource allocation –
– Most effective ways of allocating resources
– Investigate the relationship between timescales and
resource availability
– Efficacy of additional spending on resource
procurement.

• Detailed costing –
– How much will the project cost
 Activity planning Objectives
– what expenditure likely to take place?
– More detailed estimates of costs and their timing.

• Motivation –
– Providing targets and being seen to monitor
achievement against targets is an effective way

• Co-ordination –
– Staff in different departments need to be available
– When do staff need to be transferred between projects?
– Effective vehicle for communication and co-ordination
among teams

Activity planning and scheduling techniques place an

emphasis on completing the project in a minimum
time at an acceptable cost
 Activity planning Objectives
• One effective way of shortening project durations
– Carry out activities in parallel
– We cannot undertake all the activities at the
same time
– Some require the completion of others before
they can start
– Resource constraints limiting how much may be
done simultaneously.
• When to plan
– Planning is an ongoing process of refinement,
– Each iteration becoming more detailed and more
accurate than the last.
– During the feasibility study and project start-up
 Activity planning Objectives
– Planning will be to estimate timescales and the
risks of not achieving target completion dates or
keeping within budget.
– Until the final deliverable has reached the customer,
monitoring and re-planning must continue to
correct any drift that might prevent meeting time or
cost targets.
• Project schedules
– In larger project, the project plan must be
developed
– Showing dates when each activity should start and
finish
– When and how much of each resource will be required.
– Once the plan has been refined to this level of detail
we call it a project schedule. Creating a project
schedule comprises four main stages.
 Activity planning Objectives
– Producing the plan
– Ideal activity plan risk analysis
– Resource allocation
– Schedule production.

• Activity planning –
– Activity risk analysis - aimed at identifying
potential problems.
– Resource allocation - The expected availability of
resources might place constraints on when certain
activities can be carried out
– Schedule production - Once resources have been
allocated to each activity, we will be in a position
to draw up and publish a project schedule.
 Project Schedule
– Project schedule simply means a mechanism that is used
to communicate and know about that tasks are needed
and has to be done or performed and which organizational
resources will be given or allocated to these tasks and in
what time duration or time frame work is needed to be
performed.
– A schedule in your project’s time table
– Consists of sequenced activities and milestones that are
needed to be delivered under a given period of time.

– Effective project scheduling

Leads to success of project,
Reduced cost
Increased customer satisfaction.
– Scheduling in project management means to list out
activities, deliverables, and milestones within a project
 Project Schedule
– The most common and important form of project
schedule is Gantt chart.

Project-task scheduling is a significant project planning

activity. It comprises deciding which functions would be
taken up
1. Identify all the functions required to complete the
project.
2. Break down large functions into small activities.
3. Determine the dependency among various activities.
 Project Schedule
4. Establish the most likely size for the time duration
required to complete the activities
5. Allocate resources to activities.
6. Plan the beginning and ending dates for different
activities.
7. Determine the critical path. A critical way is the group
of activities that decide the duration of the project.

• Process : The manager needs to estimate time and

resources of project while scheduling project.
– All activities in project must be arranged in a
logical and well-organized manner for easy to
understand.
– Initial estimates of project can be made
optimistically which means estimates can be made
when all favorable things
 Project Schedule
– The total work is separated or divided into various
small activities or tasks
– Project manager will decide time required for each
activity or task.
– Some activities are conducted and performed in
parallel for efficient performance.

• Problems arise during Project Development Stage :

 People may leave or remain absent during particular
stage of development.
 Hardware may get failed while performing.
 Software resource that is required may not be available
at present, etc.
• Resources required for Development of Project :
 Human effort
 Sufficient disk space on server
 Specialized hardware
 Project Schedule
 Software technology
 Travel allowance required by project staff, etc.

• Advantages of Project Scheduling :

 It simply ensures that everyone remains on same
page as far as tasks get completed
 It helps in identifying issues early and concerns such
as lack or unavailability of resources.
 It also helps to identify relationships and to monitor
process.
 It provides effective budget management and risk
mitigation.
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
• Listing of activities
• deliverables, and
• milestones within a project.
• A schedule also usually includes a planned start and
finish date, duration, and resources assigned to each
activity.
• Effective project scheduling is a critical component of
successful time management.
• When people discuss the processes for building a
schedule, they are usually referring to the first six
processes of time management:
– Plan schedule management
– Define project activities
– Sequence activities
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
– Estimate resources
– Estimate durations
– Develop the project schedule
• There are three main types of schedules:
• Master project schedule: A master schedule tends to
be a simplified list of tasks with a timeline or project
calendar.
• Milestone schedule or summary schedule: This type of
schedule tracks major milestones and key
deliverables, but not every task required to complete
the project.
• A detailed project schedule: This is the most thorough
project schedule, as it identifies and tracks every
project activity.
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
• The most common form of project schedule is a Gantt
chart. Both a milestone schedule and a detailed
project schedule can be created as a Gantt chart.
• Throughout a project, we will require a schedule that
clearly indicates when each of the project's activities is
planned to occur and what resources it will need.

• Let us consider in outline how we might present a

schedule for a small project. One way of presenting
such a plan is to use a bar chart as shown in figure.
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
• Activity key:
• A: Overall design F: Code module 3 B: Specify module 1
G: Code module 2 C: Specify module 2 H: Integration
testing D: Specify module 3 I: System testing E: Code
module 1
• 'The chart shown has been drawn up taking account of
the nature of the development process (that is.
certain tasks must be completed before others may
start) and the resources that are available
• for example, activity C follows activity B because Andy
cannot work on both tasks at the same time). In
drawing up the chart, we have therefore done two
things –
– We have sequenced the tasks (that is, identified the
dependencies among activities
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
– Scheduled them (that is. specified when they should
take place).

• The bar chart does not show why certain decisions

have been made. It is not clear, for example, why
activity H is not scheduled to start until week 9.

• Scheduling has to take account of the availability of

staff and the ways in which the activities have been
allocated to them.
• In the case of small projects, this combined
sequencing-scheduling approach might be quite
suitable, particularly where we wish to allocate
individuals to particular tasks at an early planning
stage. However, on larger projects it is better to
separate out these two activities:
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities
– To sequence the task according to their logical
relationships and
– Then to schedule them taking into account resources
and other factors.

• Approaches to scheduling that achieve this separation

between the logical and the physical use networks to
model the project.
 Network Planning Models
• A Network Planning Model or critical path model
– Shows the sequential dependencies among activities
in a project.
– Calculation of the earliest project completion date.
– Project scheduling techniques
– Project’s activities and their relationships as a network.
– Time flows from left to right.
• These techniques were originally developed in the 1950s –
the two best known being CPM (Critical Path Method) and
PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique).
• What is the use of network planning model?
– Generic name for methods that study projects as a set of
interconnected activities with the purpose of assisting in
planning, managing and controlling projects.
 Network Planning Models
• The categorization of the activities involved in project
implementation in a sequential order followed by a
schematic presentation of the activities necessary for
the entire project. The steps are to:

– Identify
• list the category of activities involved from the
start to the completion of the project.
• The activities are grouped in categories which are
different from each other.
– Arrange
• The list of activities, as in above, in sequential
order of their performance.
• There may be activity which can be started only
after the completion of some other activity,
whereas there may also be some other independent
activity which can be started simultaneously.
 Network Planning Models
– With the details of A and B above, draw the diagram of
the network of the activities so that the operational
planning of the execution of the entire project can be
visualized.
• This whole procedure is the network planning of the
project schedule which makes the monitoring and
controlling of the project.
• Terms Frequently used in Network Diagram:
1. Events
1. An ‘event’ is an occurrence, representing a happening of
an incident.
2. It represents a static point of time denoting completion
of all preceding activities.
3. The earliest event occurrence (EET) is the longest of
this early finish time of all activities merging to the event.
4. Head Event, Tail Event, Burst Event and Merge Event.
 Network Planning Models
2. ‘Activity’
1. Indicates an operation carrying out a defined work.
2. It is a continuity till the work is completed
3. The time element required to complete the work is called
the ‘duration’ of the activity.
4. When activities are carried out from one event to another,
the preceding event is called ‘tail event’ and the
succeeding one is ‘head event’.
3. Slack
1. Associated with an event and represents the difference
between the EET and LET of that particular event.
2. This is the breathing time of an event
4. Arrow
1. Indicates continuous flow of the projected activity.
2. Every activity is represented by one arrow with its tail as
the start and the ‘head’ as the completion of the
activity.
 Network Planning Models
1. Conventionally the arrow is from left to right showing the
direction towards the completion of the activity.
3. Dummy Activity
1. Occasion when the connecting of some activities is by
dotted line arrow, which is called dummy activity.
2. Does not consume any resources
3. Indicate the logic/logistic part.

• The activity starts from an event, that is, the ‘tail event’.
• The activity on completion of the defined work lands up
to another event, the head event.
• Therefore, no activity can start unless the tail event
with the exception of the very first activity starting from
the number one event.
• The event is also called ‘NODE’. When- more than one
activity emanates from one event, such event is called
‘burst event’.
 Network Planning Models
• When a number of activities terminate in one event,
such event is called ‘merge event’.
• The burst event and the merge event diagrams shown
below:

• The situation arises when completion of one activity is

dependent upon completion of some other activity, and
not exactly it’s preceding one. In such cases, the related
events are joined by dotted arrow representing not a real
activity.
 Network Planning Models

– The event is shown in the network diagram by a circle

– The event is bisected horizontally with the top having the
event identifying number.
– The bottom part is further bisected vertically with the left
side showing the earliest event time (EET) and the right
one showing the latest event time (LET).
– The activity is shown by an arrow representing the flow of
work from left to right with ‘i’ as initial start and ‘j’ as
completion of the activity and the duration of the activity is
expressed as tij.
 Network Planning Models

– The length of the arrow does not have any relation with
the duration of time.
– The events and activities follow the dependency rule
• Overlapping Activities
– In network construction we assume that a succeeding
activity can start only after the completion of the preceding
activity.
– In reality, may not be necessary as such in some cases,
particularly when a series of items are to pass through a
sequence of activities
 Network Planning Models
• In such cases, selecting one activity and instead of
completing the entire series, the work can be
economically carried out.

• The diagram shows a number of dummies, Calling back

the overlapping activity P, Q and R. This type of network
planning enables institution of control in employment of
the resources. These are also called Ladder Activities.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
• Rules for designing the Activity-on-Node network
diagram
 A project network should have only one start node
 A project network should have only one end node
 A node has a duration
 Links normally have no duration
 “Precedents” are the immediate preceding activities
 Time moves from left to right in the project network
 A network should not contain loops
 A network should not contain dangles
• Node Representation & Activity-On-Node diagram:
 Activity label is the name of the activity represented
by that node.
 Earliest Start is the date or time at which the activity
can be started at the earliest.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass

 Earliest Finish is the date or time at which the activity

can completed at the earliest.
 Latest Start is the date or time at which the activity can
be started at the latest.
 Latest Finish is the date or time at which the activity
can be finished at the latest.
 Float is equal to the difference between earliest start
and latest start or earliest finish and latest finish.
• Forward Pass
– Carried out to calculate the earliest dates on which each
activity may be started and completed.
– use critical path method to find the critical path and
activities of this project
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass

• Activity A may start immediately.

– Hence, earliest date for its start is zero i.e. ES(A) = 0.
– It takes 6 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it
can finish is week 6 i.e. EF(A) = 6.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
• Activity B may start immediately.
– Hence, earliest date for its start is zero i.e. ES(B) = 0.
– It takes 4 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it
can finish is week 4 i.e. EF(B) = 4.
• Activity F may start immediately.
– Hence, earliest date for its start is zero i.e. ES(F) = 0.
– It takes 10 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest
it can finish is week 10 i.e. EF(F) = 10.
• Activity C starts as soon as activity A completes its
execution.
– Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 6 i.e.
ES(C) = 6.
– It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it
can finish is week 9 i.e. EF(C) = 9.
• Activity D starts as soon as activity B completes its
execution.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
– Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 4
i.e. ES(D) = 4.
– It takes 4 weeks to complete its execution. Hence,
earliest it can finish is week 8 i.e. EF(D) = 8.
• Activity E starts as soon as activity B completes its
execution.
– Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 4
i.e. ES(E) = 4.
– It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence,
earliest it can finish is week 7 i.e. EF(E) = 7.
• Activity G starts as soon as activity E and activity F
completes their execution. Since, activity requires the
completion of both for starting its execution, we would
consider the MAX(ES(E), ES(F)).
– Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 10
i.e. ES(G) = 10.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
– It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it
can finish is week 13 i.e. EF(G) = 13.
• Activity H starts as soon as activity C and activity D
completes their execution. Since, activity requires the
completion of both for starting its execution, we would
consider the MAX(ES(C), ES(D)).
– Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 9 i.e.
ES(H) = 9.
– It takes 2 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it
can finish is week 11 i.e. EF(H) = 11.
Forward Pass & Backward Pass
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
• Backward Pass
– Carried out to calculate the latest dates
– Each activity may be started and finished without
delaying the end date of the project.
– Assumption: Latest finish date = Earliest Finish date
(of project).
• Activity G’s latest finish date is equal to the earliest finish
date
– Precedent activity of finish according to the assumption
i.e. LF(G) = 13.
– It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest
it can start is week 10 i.e. LS(G) = 10.
• Activity H’s latest finish date is equal to the earliest finish
date
– Precedent activity of finish according to the assumption
i.e. LF(H) = 13.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
– It takes 2 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest
it can start is week 11 i.e. LS(H) = 11.
• The latest end date for activity C would be
– The latest start date of H i.e. LF(C) = 11.
– It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest
it can start is week 8 i.e. LS(C) = 8.
• The latest end date for activity D would be
– The latest start date of H i.e. LF(D) = 11.
– It takes 4 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest
it can start is week 7 i.e. LS(D) = 7.
• The latest end date for activity E would be
– The latest start date of G i.e. LF(G) = 10. It takes 3
weeks to complete its execution.
– Hence, latest it can start is week 7 i.e. LS(E) = 7.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
• The latest end date for activity E would be
– The latest start date of G i.e. LF(G) = 10. It takes 3
weeks to complete its execution.
– Hence, latest it can start is week 7 i.e. LS(E) = 7.

• The latest end date for activity F would be

– The latest start date of G i.e. LF(G) = 10. It takes 10
weeks to complete its execution.
– Hence, latest it can start is week 0 i.e. LS(F) = 0.
Forward Pass & Backward Pass
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
• Identifying Critical Path
– Critical path is the path which gives us or helps us to
estimate the earliest time in which the whole project
can be completed.
– Any delay to an activity on this critical path will lead
to a delay in the completion of the whole project.
– In order to identify the critical path, we need to
calculate the activity float for each activity.
• Difference between an activity’s Earliest start and
its latest start date or activity’s Earliest finish and
its latest finish date
• It indicates that how much the activity can be
delayed without delaying the completion of the whole
project.
 Forward Pass & Backward Pass
– If the float of an activity is zero, then the activity is an
critical activity and must be added to the critical
path of the project network.
– In this example, activity F and G have zero float and
hence, are critical activities.
Find the critical path
Solution
 Unit 2 – Part 2
Risk management
• Nature Of Risk
• Types Of Risk
• Managing Risk.
 Nature of Risk
• For the purpose of identifying and managing
– risks that may cause a project to overrun its time-scale
or budget,
– It is convenient to identify types of risk:
• Improved quality control
– Easier to predict the
• time required for program and
• time required for system testing
• Risk Reason
1. Caused by the inherent difficulties of estimation;
2. Due to assumptions made during the planning
process;
3. Unforeseen or at least unplanned events occurring.
Nature of Risk
 Nature of Risk
• Nature of risk
– Estimation errors
• Some tasks are harder to estimate than others
because of the lack of experience
• Producing a set of user manuals is reasonably
straightforward
• we have carried out similar tasks previously, we
should be able to estimate with some degree of
accuracy
– how long it will take and
– how much it will cost.
• The time required for program testing and
debugging, might be difficult to predict with a
similar degree of accuracy
• Estimation can be improved by analysing historic
data for similar activities and for similar systems.
 Nature of Risk
– Planning assumptions
• At every stage during planning, assumptions are
made which, if not valid, may put the plan at risk.
• Assumption of using a particular design methodology
- which may be subsequently changed.
– following coding,
– a module will be tested and
– then integrated with others
• At each stage in the planning process, it is important
to list explicitly all of the assumptions
• identify what effects they might have on the plan if
they are inappropriate.
– Eventualities
• Some eventualities might never be foreseen and
unimaginable things do, sometimes, happen. They
are, however, very rare.
 Nature of Risk
• The majority of unexpected events can, in fact, be
identified
– The requirements specification might be altered
after some of the modules have been coded,
– The senior programmer might take maternity
leave,
– The required hardware might not be delivered on
time.
• Such events do happen from time to time and,
although the likelihood of any one of them happening
during a particular project.
 Type of Risk
• Software development is a multistage approach
– Design, documentation, programming, prototyping,
testing etc.
– follows a Software Development Life Cycle
(SDLC) process.
• Different tasks are performed based on SDLC framework
• Most enterprises rely on software and ignoring the risks
associated with any phase
• Creates unforeseen challenges for business
• Before analyzing different risks - first understand
– what is actually risk and
– why risk management is important for a business.

• Risk and importance of risk management

– Risk is uncertain events associated with future events
– which have a probability of occurrence but it may or
may not occur
 Type of Risk
– Very important task
– success and failure of any software project depends on
it.
• Various Kinds of Risks in Software Development :

– Schedule Risk - Refers to time related risks

• Wrong schedule affects the project development and
delivery.
• These risks are mainly indicates
– Running behind time
– Doesn’t progress timely
– Directly impacts to delivery of project.
• Finally if schedule risks affect to
organization/company economy very badly.
• Some reasons for Schedule risks
– Time is not estimated perfectly
– Improper resource allocation
 Type of Risk

– Tracking of resources like system, skill, staff etc

– Frequent project scope expansion
– Failure in function identification and its’
completion
• Budget Risk - Refers to the monetary risks
– Occurs due to budget overruns.
– Mismanaged then there budget concerns will arise
– Proper finance distribution and management are required
for the success
– Some reasons for Budget risks
– Wrong/Improper budget estimation
– Unexpected Project Scope expansion
– Mismanagement in budget handling
– Cost overruns
– Improper tracking of Budget
 Type of Risk
• Operational Risks - Refers to the procedural risks
– Risks which happen in day-to-day operational
activities during project development
– Due to improper process implementation or some
external operational risks.
– Some reasons for Operational risks
– Insufficient resources
– Conflict between tasks and employees
– Improper management of tasks
– No proper planning about project
– Less number of skilled people
– Lack of communication and cooperation
– Lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities
– Insufficient training
• Technical Risks - Refers to the functional risk or
performance risk
 Type of Risk
– Mainly associated with functionality or performance
part of the software product.
– Some reasons for technical risks
– Frequent changes in requirement
– Less use of future technologies
– Less number of skilled employee
– High complexity in implementation
– Improper integration of modules
• Programmatic Risks - Refers to the external risk or other
unavoidable risks.
– These are the external risks which are unavoidable in
nature.
– These risks come from outside and it is out of control of
programs.
– Some reasons for Programmatic risks –
– Rapid development of market
 Type of Risk
– Running out of fund / Limited fund for project
development
– Changes in Government rules/policy
– Loss of contracts due to any reason
 Managing Risk
Identification, Assessment, Monitoring
• Risk identification
– Identifying risk is one of most important or essential
and initial steps in risk management process.
– If failure occurs in identifying any specific or
particular risk, then all other steps that are involved in
risk management will not be implemented for that
particular risk.
– For identifying risk, project team should review scope
of program, estimate cost, schedule, technical maturity,
parameters of key performance, etc.

– To manage risk, project team or organization are

needed to know about what risks it faces, and then to
evaluate them.
– Identification of risk is an iterative process.
 Managing Risk
• It includes generating or creating comprehensive list of
threats and opportunities that are based on events that
can enhance, prevent, degrade, accelerate, or might delay
successful achievement of objectives.
• Methods for Identifying Risks
– Earlier, there were no easy methods available that will
surely identify all risks.
– But nowadays, there are some additional approaches
available for identifying risks.
• Checklist Analysis
– Type of technique generally used to identify or find risks
and manage it.
– The checklist is developed by listing items, steps, or even
tasks.
– Then further analyzed against criteria to just identify and
determine if procedure is completed correctly or not.
 Managing Risk
• Brainstorming
– Gives free and open approach that usually encourages
each and everyone on project team to participate.
– Results in greater sense of ownership of project risk, and
team generally committed to managing risk for given time
period of project.
– Creative and unique technique to gather risks
spontaneously by team members.
– Provides opportunity for team members to always
develop on each other’s ideas.
– Used to determine best possible solution to problems and
issue that arises and emerge.
• Casual Mapping
– Method that builds or develops on reflection and review
of failure factors in cause and effect of the diagrams.
 Managing Risk
– It is very useful for facilitating learning with an
organization or system simply as method of project-post
evaluation.
– It is also key tool for risk assessment.

• SWOT Analysis
– Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threat (SWOT) is
very technique and helpful for identifying risks within
greater organization context.
– Used as planning tool for analyzing business & its
resources.
– Technique often used in formulation of strategy simply
by looking at internal strengths and weaknesses and
opportunities and threats in external environment.
– The appropriate time and effort should be spent
– SWOT analysis is more effective and successful in risk
identification.
 Managing Risk
• Flowchart Method –
– Dynamic process to be diagrammatically represented in
paper.
– Used to represent activities of process graphically and
sequentially to simply identify the risk.
 Managing Risk
• Risk Assessment
– Risk assessment is a step in a risk management
procedure. Risk assessment is the determination of
quantitative or qualitative value.
– Risk assessment involves measuring the probability
that a risk will become a reality.
– Risk assessment is not a project manager's
responsibility its ideas of the entire team.
• Project Manager: acts as the chairperson
• Project Team: project manager assign any project team
member the roles of recorder and timekeeper
• Key Stakeholders: those identified that may bring
value in the identification of project risks.
• Subject Matter Experts: those identified that may
specialize in a certain project activity
 Managing Risk
– Project Sponsor: may participate depending on the size
and scope of the project

• Common Phases of Risk Assessment

In many projects, risks are identified and analyzed in a
random, brainstorming, fashion.
Unexpected risks arise, which have not been assessed or
planned for and have to be dealt with on an emergency
basis.
It is essential that potential risks are identified,
categorized, evaluated & documented.

Risk Identification
Compiled a list of risks from previous project experiences.
Reviewed at the beginning of the project
Give an insight to the members to predict possible risks.
Use methods for identifying risks like Crawford Slip method
Managing Risk
 Managing Risk
2. Categorize and Group Duplicates
Categorizing risks is a way to systematically identify the
risks.
Provide a foundation for awareness, understanding and
action.
The most common, easy and the most effective method
for this is to post the sticky notes

3. Qualify Risks
Assign Probability and Impact to Each Risk
The key questions to assess any risk in projects are:
• What is the risk – how will I recognize it if it becomes a
reality?
• What is the probability of it happening – high, medium
or low?
• How serious a threat does it pose to the project – high,
medium or low?
 Managing Risk
• What are the signals or triggers that we should be looking
out for?

4. Determine Risk Response

Identified with a high risk score.
Determine the triggers or causes and identify responses.
Responses may include:
• Adding the risk to the project plan and scheduling for it.
• Adding funding to the project to mitigate any potential
increase in costs
• Adding resources to the project to mitigate any potential
shortage in assigned resources;
• Developing a course of action for avoiding the risk.

5. Documentation of Risks
– Enter all the risks, probability-impact scores, and
responses and maintain a document to explain all risks.
 Managing Risk
– The high scoring risks will be added to the Project
Management Plan.
– As a method to track the risk at the correct time.
– Provide awareness and visibility to the participants
• Risk Monitoring -
– where you keep track of about how your risk
responses are performing against the plan as well as
the place where new risks to the project are managed.
– Risks can have negative and positive impacts.
– Positive risk - potential benefits outweigh the
traditional approach
– Negative risk - negatively influence the cost of
– Following primary objectives as follows.
• To check if predicted risks occur or not.
• To ensure proper application of risk aversion steps
defined for risk.
 Managing Risk
• To collect data for future risk analysis.
• To allocate what problems are caused by which
risks throughout the project.
• As the project proceeds, risk monitoring activities
commence. The project manager monitors factors
• In the case of high staff turnover, the following factors
can be monitored:

 General attitude of team members based on

project pressures.
 Interpersonal relationships among team members.
 Potential problems with compensation and
benefits.
 The availability of jobs within the company and
outside it.
 Managing Risk
• The purpose of project risk monitoring is to

– Identify the events

– Assign qualitative and quantitative weight
– Produce alternate paths of execution
– Implement a continuous process

• The main goals to risk monitoring:

– To confirm risk responses

– To determine if risk responses
– To determine the validity
– To determine if risk exposure
– To confirm policies and procedures
– To monitor the project for new risks
– To monitor risk triggers