Risk management - Success measures
Success measures
Identify success criteria and how to measure them
When putting together a project plan, if key points or activities on that plan do not have success criteria, then it will be hard to assess how easily they can be met i.e. where the risk areas are. Once criteria have been identified the project team will need to agree how they are measured. If the objectives are not clear, criteria for its completion cannot be set. Even if the objective and success criteria are clear the measurement may not be easy.
Any difficulty in setting objectives and criteria will result in higher risk as there will be a lack of confidence in completion.
How do we find out the exact nature of the objective, criteria and measurement techniques?
There is no short cut, we have to ask the people that know (for objectives) and agree criteria and measurement techniques with them.
This can take considerable time prior to the completion of the project baseline plan.
How a risk is assessed (e.g. high, medium or low) may indicate who will need to be consulted in terms of any decision making.
Remember, HIGH risk does not necessarily equate with HIGH impact upon the project. Conversely, a LOW risk activity may be extremely unlikely to happen but if it does it could be devastating for the project and hence have a HIGH impact.
So, having assessed the risk it is the overall impact that will decide where the decision pathway lies.
For a given project there will be two sorts of activity:
- Those that lie on the Critical Path.
Any tasks here, if delayed, will push back the end date. This will result in increased costs, loss of reputation and impact on other projects.
- Those not on the Critical Path
Tasks here may be adversely affected, to such an extent, that they end up on the Critical Path.