Using agile risk management with PRINCE2
The main reason for the management of risks is to ensure a successful project outcome and to reap greater benefits by having the confidence that the risks will be managed.
This is particularly important when using the more creative approaches to solutions when agile is blended with PRINCE2
One of the key advantages with confidence in risk management, is to enable improved decision making for the project. This is particularly true when considering the project business case, when resources are needed, and improved decision making for future projects.
An added asset is improvements in confidence and predictability of or risk planning.
Another definition of project risk is that it is defined as the exposure of stakeholders to the consequences of variations in outcome.
By taking a structured approach to project risk management, it can be simplified down to just three steps:
- Identify risk
- Assess risk severity
- Planned down to measures
In practice, the adoption of agile risk management to your PRINCE2 project would involve:
- Identify the risk
- Assess the probability or likelihood, and the impact of each risk to determine its severity
- Plan proactive and reactive countermeasures as appropriate for this identified severity
- Monitor and manage the risks appropriately throughout the project
There are two major risk areas that should be considered for every project, and these are:
- Risks to achieving the project objectives and addressing these with risk management best practices
- Risks relating to the approach chosen
When applying agile risk management practices to a PRINCE2 project, key risks areas include:
- Level of business involvement and commitment
- Team skills, both ability and availability
- Clarity of vision without defining detail too early
- Maintaining focus on delivering on time, by varying the features
Another point to consider is that the project manager is not solely responsible for risk management.
Although the project manager is accountable for achieving effective risk management, individual risks will have named owners, who maybe at any level within the project.
All members of the solution development teams on the project should be aware of current relevant risks while also bringing new risks to the attention of the project manager when appropriate.
It is the business who ultimately owns the project success, and for this reason the business visionary and business sponsor should be kept informed about risks where their ownership would be the best management approach.
The main sources of agile risk within a PRINCE2 project
The working environment enabling individuals to work together effectively. To minimize such risk the working environment must support collaboration and cooperation of team members in order to build the solution.
Individual competence and professionalism is key here. If an individual is unwilling or unable to do the job expected of them to the agreed standards and in an agreed way, then this can result in significant risk to project success.
To mitigate risk then both the business, the supplier, and project management areas must agree realistic expectations aligned with the capabilities of the team along with their level of empowerment and control.
Another factor is that in order to mitigate risk, requirements must reflect the full scope or breath of the project at the beginning it even though the detail will get to be defined.
To reduce the likelihood of ineffective iteration, wasted work and loss of business opportunity, the business vision must be clearly stated periods to reduce this level of risk, the business visionary needs to be significant be involved in guiding the projects direction.
There is another risk and that is of despite requirements being stated clearly, it may be that they have not been fully understood. To mitigate this type of risk it is important that mechanisms need to be in place to continually check requirement interpretation throughout the project.
Another risk is that the business need is not fully understood at the beginning, and such risk can be reduced by planning in contingencies in the form of reduced scope or features to be delivered.
In a similar way, an area of risk will occur if the requirements are inflexible due to set expectations of management. This is where the use of re-prioritization can be helpful.
PRINCE2 being used with agile depends on strong self -empowered teams and therefore a risk to such projects would be significant changes to the project personnel as well as change to the project environment.
The project approach should be the correct one chosen for the project and its environment. Risk in this area can be mitigated by coaching and mentoring of individuals and teams.
To get the full story of successful management of PRINCE2 projects, check out our PRINCE2 Masterclass
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