Key principles of risk management

Risk identification should continue throughout the project life cycle and all project staff should have some responsibility for identifying risks.

The project manager, programme manager or functional lead has accountability for the management of risk but responsibility for managing risk may be devolved to anyone in the project team. Where a risk manager exists he or she usually has the primary responsibility for sponsoring risk identification activities and collecting the identified risks for analysis. There are many techniques available to help do this and it is wise to record risks in a standard way before identification begins. Projects can choose to use risk identification pro-formas to assist with the identification of risks. Lists of categories, themes or areas of risk can also be used and are often informed by previous experience and lessons learnt.

There are various approaches used to identify project risks. Examples would include (but would not be limited to):

• workshop;
• brainstorming session;
• structured interviews;
• design reviews and design appraisals;
• project documentation;
• risk identification form distributed to the workshop team prior to the session;
• desktop studies;
• SWOT analysis (internal/ external);
• PESTEL analysis;
• assumptions;
• historic information;
• risk checklist;
• risk prompt list;
• cause and effect diagrams; and
  
• risk questionnaire.