Every project carries risk, no matter how hard you try to avoid it. But risk doesn’t have to lead to failure. With some foresight and planning, you can get a handle on project risk before it upends your success.
Let’s take a look at different types of project risk to look out for and walk through simple steps you can take to identify, monitor, and manage risks in your projects.
In project management, risk refers to an event or situation that has the potential to impact a project if it occurs.
While it’s easy to assume all risk is bad, these impacts could have either a positive or negative effect on the project. It’s less about the outcome and more about the uncertainty of factors that could cause your plan to shift, for better or worse.
There are lots of different types of risk in project management. So how do you know what to look for?
Let’s start by defining the 2 broadest categories of project risk: internal vs. external.
Once you’ve got a few projects under your belt, you’ll start to notice that some project risks pop up more than others.
Here are 3 common types of risk you should look out for in any project you manage:
Of course, those aren’t the only project risks out there. Depending on the type of project you're managing, you may also need to monitor these additional risk categories:
Lay a clear path to success with a visual plan that’s easy to understand, and keep everyone in sync with flexible workflows and team collaboration.
Talking about all the possible risks that can impact your projects can be scary. So let’s move on to some easy steps you can take to keep risk in check.
You may not be able to eliminate every project risk. But these tips and tools can help you identify and manage risk with a lot more confidence.
When everyone has different ideas or expectations about what needs to be delivered, it can put project deadlines, budgets, and goals at risk. That’s why working with your team and stakeholders to define scope and project requirements is always worth your time.
It’s much easier to defend decisions and keep scope in check when you’ve documented—and agreed upon—project deliverables before work begins.
A risk assessment is a simple tool you can use to identify and measure project risks so you can come up with a proactive plan for mitigation. Here’s how it works:
Knowing what risks to watch out for and how you’ll address them can go a long way in easing anxiety for everyone involved in the project.
A project plan serves as the central source of truth for your project so there’s no question about what’s happening when and who’s responsible. It also makes it easy to spot issues early and make wise decisions about change.
Here’s how to use your project plan to get ahead of risk in TeamGantt:
What you don’t know can come back to bite you when it comes to project risk. That’s why it’s important to monitor timelines and budgets as work progresses to ensure everything’s on track. Here are 2 easy ways to do this in TeamGantt:
You rely on a lot of folks to make your project a success. But bogging your team down with too many tasks can tank productivity. These simple steps can help you keep people busy without burning them out.
Good communication keeps confusion and mismatched expectations from sending your project sideways. It also enables you to address risk early so you have more control over its impact on your project.
A communication plan establishes clear guidelines for how and when information will be shared on your project. Use it to set expectations for project updates, meetings, and collaboration tools and streamline communication with your team and stakeholders.
Don’t forget your project plan is a communication tool too. In TeamGantt, you can collaborate on work and upload documents directly to your plan, plus get email or Slack notifications so you don’t miss important task updates.
A project status report keeps stakeholders up-to-date on progress and makes risk a regular topic of project conversation. After all, you can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge or talk about.
Tracking risks in your status report shows stakeholders you’re keeping an eye out for issues and allows you to work together to find solutions. That way you can adjust your plan as needed to effectively manage risk.
Want to manage risk more easily? With TeamGantt, you can create a clear project plan that’s easy to track and monitor.
You’ll have all the features you need to spot issues early and ensure projects finish on time and under budget—from drag and drop simplicity and team collaboration to project reporting and workload management.
Best of all, it’s all wrapped up in a simple and intuitive interface your whole team will love. 😍