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PRINCE2 7 Risk Responses 

 January 14, 2025

By  Dave Litten

Choosing PRINCE2 7 Risk Responses

When it comes to handling risks, the best approach really depends on the situation and the type of risk you’re dealing with. Different strategies work for threats and opportunities, so let’s dive into the risk response options!

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Avoid a threat / Exploit an opportunity

Imagine making an uncertain situation certain by simply removing the risk. Sounds great, right? This can often be done by eliminating the cause of a threat or by implementing something that leads to an opportunity.

Sometimes, you can do this without any extra cost by just changing how you plan your work. But let’s be real, often there will be costs involved to get rid of all residual risks. If you’re spending money, it better be worth it!

Reduce a threat / Enhance an opportunity

This is all about taking action now to change the probability or impact of the risk. When we talk about reducing a threat, we often use the term ‘mitigate,’ which means making the threat less likely to happen or reducing its impact if it does.

On the flip side, enhancing an opportunity means making it more likely to happen or increasing its positive impact. Just remember, any costs for these actions need to be justified by the change in residual risk.

Transfer the risk

Sometimes, it’s best to pass part of the risk to a third party. Insurance is a classic example where the insurer takes on the risk cost, but you still deal with other impacts, like time delays.

This can also apply to opportunities, where a third party gets a cost benefit, and you gain another benefit. It’s not super common for opportunities, but transferring threats is pretty standard. Again, make sure the cost of transfer is worth it!

Share the risk

Sharing risk is a bit different from transferring it. Here, multiple parties, usually within a supply chain, share the risk on a pain or gain basis. It’s rare to share risks entirely this way, but it can encourage collaboration on risk management, especially in projects and programs.

Accept the risk

Sometimes, you just have to take the chance that the risk will occur and manage its full impact if it does. With this option, there’s no change to residual risk, but you also don’t incur any costs now to manage it.

For example, a business might accept the risk of currency fluctuations without hedging or other provisions. Just make sure this option is within your risk tolerance!

Prepare contingent plans

This involves preparing plans but waiting to act. It’s often linked with the ‘accept’ option, suggesting that risks are accepted for now, but there’s a plan for what to do if things change. This can apply to other responses too and is often called a fallback plan. It’s your backup if the original response doesn’t work.

Residual and Secondary Risks

If you reduce a threat rather than remove it, the remaining risk is called ‘residual’ risk. If it’s significant, you might need more than one response.

Sometimes, a risk response can reduce or remove other related risks, but it can also create secondary risks. These need to be identified, assessed, and controlled just like the original risk.

Balancing the cost of implementing a risk response against the probability and impact of the risk is crucial. Compare the cost of the response with the difference in the expected monetary value of the risk.

If the response cost is lower than the reduction in expected monetary value, it’s usually worth it. But always consider the overall effect on the project team, as it might shift their focus from delivering the project to managing risks.

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Dave Litten


Dave spent 25+ years as a senior project manager for UK and USA multinationals and has deep experience in project management. He now develops a wide range of Project Management Masterclasses, under the Projex Academy brand name. In addition, David runs project management training seminars across the world, and is a prolific writer on the many topics of project management.

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