Prioritizing Risks
You can label them in any manner you like, but it is important to prioritize potential risks. The following shows one way of prioritizing:
Four-alarm risks (****) are those with a high probability of having a major impact on the project.
Three-alarm risks (***) have a lower degree of probability, but still pack a wallop and can have a major impact on the project.
Two-alarm risks (**) are high in probability, but are manageable or controllable with the right degree of attention.
One-alarm risks (*) are low in probability and will not prove harmful, perhaps just a minor nuisance.
Each project is unique, so no boilerplate program can tell you in which category to put each risk. Time and money will factor heavily into the issue, as will the nature of the project itself. Even the same risk in two scenarios can be quite different in scope. For example, a computer problem on a computer-based project is a four-alarm problem. Greater precaution needs to be taken to guard against the system going down, and a full backup plan needs to be in place. The same crash of a computer that is storing information for a small dress shop's upcoming sale is a one-alarm problem because the information can be recreated and the sale can commence regardless of whether the computer is repaired. Perhaps a hard copy of the discount structure would be a simple safeguard against the risk of being incapacitated.
As a project manager, you'll act quickly when you see a three- or four-alarm risk, monitor a two-alarm one, and hopefully handle a one-alarm risk quickly or delegate it to someone else.
Backing up all computer programs, files, and data is an easy and essential manner of risk mitigation that can save you hours of time, effort, and money in the event of a power failure or computer mishap. Make it a practice to back up your work regularly.
Knowing how and where you could get your hands on another copy of a software program, or having one installed in a laptop that is not plugged into the same electrical line as your computer system, is a simple way to mitigate some technical problems. People rely too heavily on “the system” when, too often, the system is not up and functioning. Be able to work around it effectively.
