Fresh look: Project and Risk teams

Fresh Look – Is a series of articles taking a look at common topics to try to come up with some new ideas and insight into problems that seem to repeat themselves across many organisations

Risk management should be the star of the P3M show, but it rarely is. In organisations that are forward thinking enough to have risk professionals the relationship between project managers and risk managers is not always optimal.

In this paper, a risk advocate provides some fresh insight into how the relationship could work better.

 

MSP® Governance Theme Overviews

Rod Sowden the Aspire Europe Managing Director (and lead author of the current version of MSP®) gives quick overviews to the governance theme chapters of the MSP manual, in the below playlist.

Hope you find the videos useful!

Click here to visit our channel and keep an eye out for more videos coming soon.

Got an idea for a video you would like to see? We would love to hear from you:

Tel: +44 (0) 1275 848099
Email: enquiries@aspireeurope.com

MSP® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

Risk and Issue Management – Knowledge Nugget

If you want a free knowledge nugget to find out about Risk Management, then this interview is for you.

In this interview Rod Sowden (the Aspire Europe MD) not only explains the MSP® perspective on risk, but also explores the key area of risk aggregation which is key in a programme environment. Without effective risk aggregation management the programme will always be exposed to risks that appear minor at a project level representing a major threat to the programme.

To access the pod-cast, click here

MSP® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

Magnificent Seven – Risk Management

Risk management is one of those strange things that we know we should do it, but when we do, it doesn’t seem that interesting.  We have conducted numerous gateway reviews, health checks and maturity assessments and invariably organizations seem to be just going through the motions, we have termed the phrase “risk watching” rather than managing.

One Programme Director, when considering the MSP® Risk Management Strategy, concluding that whatever he did, risks seemed to happen so their strategy would be not to manage risks but manage them all as issues, pragmatic at least.

So here are our Magnificent Seven for Risk Management:

1. The approach aligns with objectives of the initiative – if it is high risk then much more attention should be given to managing them, this can be achieved by putting it at the top of the agenda
2. Focus on the threats and understand what could trigger them, far too many programmes and projects focus on the consequences, for example, stakeholder resistance can be the result of poor communications, so it is the impact or effect of the threat of failing to communicate effectively.
3. Engage stakeholders in the process of identifying and managing risks, normally business operations will understand the risks much better than project staff so should be fully involved
4. Focus on the aggregating effect of risk, a wise man once said the worst thing that happened to risk was the risk register, as it hides the relationship between individual risks.
5. Clear and simple guidance that is provided in the context of the organisations vocabulary and culture, don’t overcomplicate guidance with jargon.
6. Informs decision making through the availability of current information and that lessons are being learned and shared.
7. Innovate in the way risk management information is presented to a programme or project board, avoid laying a large risk register in front of them, keep it simple and they will stay engaged, they don’t want to the initiative to fail, if they are disengaged when discussing risk then rethink the approach – basically worrying about what might go wrong is never going to be fun

MSP® is a [registered] trade marks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

Aspire Europe to provide keynote speaker at International Risk Management Conference

Here at Aspire Europe, we are proud to be providing the keynote speaker (Alan Summerfield) at the International Risk Management Conference.

His keynote speech will be on –  “Where does it all go wrong? And what is the best approach for success?”

The 4th annual International Risk Management Conference will take place on May 3, 2016 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Who should attend: The conference is relevant for anyone working in project management and risk management in the public and private sector

Your outcome: The conference has established a reputation of high quality content, enlightening discussions and solid networking opportunities, so book the date in your calendar.

For more information, please click here

Improve Your Risk Performance

Mark Zuckerberg said “The biggest risk is not taking any risk…..in a world that’s changing really quickly; the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

Here are some facts about Risk Management:-

• It has been shown that one in six IT projects becomes a ‘Black Swan’, with cost overruns of 200% on average, and schedule overruns of 70%.

• Intangible risk management identifies a new type of a risk that has a 100% probability of occurring, but is ignored by the organisation due to a lack of identification ability.

This is your chance to raise your game within your organisation by up-skilling your knowledge in this area. We have a variety of learning options for you to choose from (which will be blogged over this week and the next).

For now here are some details on are one day risk principles course:

Our one day course has been a best seller for over 5 years. It provides the key information on the principles and concepts of risk management and draws on our experience as the authors of MSP® and setting up risk frameworks for major organisations.

Our next public course is on 17th September 2014.

For more information, click here for the course outline.

 

PRINCE2 risk theme vodcast

Our partners in Brisbane, CC Learning, have produced this high octane vodcast outlining the key concepts in the PRINCE2 risk management theme, the video is presented by their managing director, Scott Spence

Enjoy the ride – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPivTDRTy5g

Management of Risk and ISO31000 exposed

Ever wondered how all the various risk management standards hang together, and why we need so many different ones.

This paper does an excellent job of comparing two of the standards, the UK Government Management of Risk, and the ISO31000 model.

If you would like to read it, then click here

http://www.best-management-practice.com/gempdf/Management_of_Risk_Guidance_for_Practitioners_and_the_International_Standard_on_Risk_Management_ISO31000_2009.pdf

Interesting Quote

Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the thing you can’t count, really count” – Albert Einstein

How very true this is, programmes and projects rarely report on the things that really matter, like benefits realisation and stakeholder satisfaction – Albert must have been thinking of MSP when he wrote that !!

DFT award Aspire Europe contract

We are very pleased to announce that we have been awarded the contract to develop the Programme and Project Management  framework for the Department of Transport based on the Align Framework tools

Managing Director, Rod Sowden stated “This is really great news, our Align framework and tools product are unique in their concept of how programme and project methods should be developed. Keep it simple and people will use it, the key is just in time delivery of the right guidance. It is a big endorsement of our approach to have won this work with such a prestigious organisation”