Excerpts & Gist from the article by Nadim and Ronald publishied in the Harward Business Review on Managing Projects. The book is available at all leading book stores in Hyderabad. Jotted these notes for my consumption as well as to prod the interested reader(s) to buy the book.
According to the authors, there are three types of risks in a project, namely:
a. Execution Risks
b. White Space Risks, and
c. Integration Risks.
Most Project Managers take into consideration the Execution Risks but neglect the other two.
Execution Risks are those risks that can be identified in advance.
White Space Risks are those that cannot be identified in advance; they surface during project execution.
Integration Risks. When more teams work on a project, the end product/result of such Project requires integration of the end-results of each team. The risks related to integration of such works are termed as 'Integration Risks'.
A solution to address all these risks is to break-up the project into mini-projects & work on them. These are referred as 'Rapid Results Initiatives' (RRIs).
RRIs can be upto 100 days duration with key results defined. The lessons-of-experience from each of those RRIs are considered in the subsequent RRIs. Thus, the risks are substantially mitigated and addressed properly.
For example, if a project is to establish a pipeline network is 50 locations in a city, then in the RRI two or three locations would be taken up by different teams & the work is planned and executed. During the execution, various problems would surface which would be the lessons-of-experience.
The subsequent RRIs would obviously be well managed than the earlier ones. And, finally, the entire project gets executed as well as integrated duly managing/mitigating the various risks in its course.
Jaikishan
3rd Oct 2014
