"The five basic steps you must do on a project" - Part 4

step 1 - Carefully define the outcome from the project.

step 2 - Defining and documenting requirements

step 3 - Creating a "doable" plan

step 4 - Manage Risks and Issues

Any project, regardless of size will have risks and issues. Risks are items that could occur and issues are items that have occurred. Knowing up front the potential issues , risks, helps you be prepared for dealing with them if and when they occur. 

 When you are planning the project you need to identify the "bad" things that could happen to your project and determine how likely they are to occur. For those that have a higher likelihood, determine what actions could be taken to prevent the risk or what actions could be taken to mitigate the risk if it happens, i.e. becomes an issue.

Let's look at an example. Let's say you have a small independent insurance brokerage and you are upgrading your office computer system with new servers and network components. The old server is on lease and the new equipment will be on a new lease with a new vendor. A risk might be that the new vendor fails to deliver the new hardware on time. Your contingencies could be:1) Arrange an extension of your lease with the old vendor 2) Have the new vendor host your applications offsite temporarily. By identifying these actions up front you can ask both vendors what it would cost and what actions would be needed to execute the contingency plan. By doing this you have a plan ready to go so if the risk becomes an issue, you don't have to scramble.