Year: 2020

The Project Health Scorecard Part 6 – Risk

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Risk Health:

Your Risk Health is Green if all of these are true:

  • Issues and risks are documented in a central repository
  • Risks have triggers, mitigation and contingency plans for high-exposure and high-impact risks
  • Risks are reviewed on a regular basis by the project manager and risk/issue owners;

Your Risk Health is Yellow if any of these are true:

  • Issues and risks are defined in a central repository but not reviewed on a regular basis by the project manager and risk/issue owners
  • Risks have no mitigation and contingency plans associated with the high-exposure items

Your Risk Health is Red if any of these are true:

  • Issues and risks are not documented in a central repository
  • Risks are not formally managed.

Note: Much more detail on creating a the Project Health Scorecard can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

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The Project Health Scorecard Part 5 – Resources

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Resource Health:

Your Resource Health is Green if ALL of these are true:

  • Stakeholders are attending required meetings
  • Resources are meeting their commitments
  • The team matches the skill-sets defined in the project roles matrix

Your Resource Health is Yellow if ANY of these are true:

  • Stakeholders are not always attending required meetings
  • Stakeholders are not always meeting their commitments
  • Some parts of the team do not match the skill-sets defined in the project roles matrix.

Your Resource Health is Red if ANY of these are true:

  • Stakeholders are not defined
  • Stakeholders are consistently not attending required meetings
  • Resources are not meeting their commitments
  • Critical parts of the team do not match the skill-sets defined in the project roles matrix

Note: Much more detail on creating a the Project Health Scorecard can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

The Project Health Scorecard Part 4 – Value

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Value Health:

Your Value Health is Green if ALL of these things are true:

  • The business objectives are stated in the project charter
  • The business objectives are measurable
  • The value in the business case will still be achieved
  • There are no compromises from the original scope and schedule that affects the value of the solution.

Your Value Health is Yellow if ANY of these are true:

  • The business objectives stated in the project charter may not be achieved
  • There are compromises (e.g. a smaller testing window) from the original scope and schedule that somewhat affect the value of the solution.

Your Value Health is Red if ALL of these are true:

  • The business objectives stated in the project charter cannot be achieved
  • There are compromises (e.g. a smaller testing window) from the original scope and schedule that have a major affect on the value of the solution.

Note: Much more detail on the Project Health Scorecard can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

The Project Health Scorecard Part 3 – Scope Health

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Scope Health:

Your Scope Health is Green if all of these are true:

  • You have an approved Project Charter
  • Scope is defined in the Charter
  • There is a defined scope change request process

Your Scope Health is Yellow if all of these are true:

  • You have an approved Project Charter
  • Scope is defined but there are significant change requests pending Executive Sponsor review and approval

Your Scope Health is Red if one of these is true:

  • Scope is not defined
  • Scope is defined and there is no approved scope change process
  • The defined Scope change process is not being followed.

Note: Much more detail on the Project Health Scorecard can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

The Project Health Scorecard Part 2 – Budget Health

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Budget Health:

Your Budget Health is Green if all of these are true:

  • You have an approved budget
  • It is actively managed
  • The current forecast is within the approved budget

Your Budget Health is Yellow if all of these are true:

  • You have an approved budget
  • The current forecast is greater than the approved budget but corrective action is defined and likely to resolve the problem.

Your Budget Health is Red if either of these are true:

  • You don’t have a budget
  • You have a  budget and the forecast is greater than the current budgeted amount and corrective action is not possible

Your budget health can turn back to Green if you obtain approval for a new budget. The new budget becomes your new baseline from which you will measure budget health.

Note: Much more detail on the Project Health Scorecard can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

The Project Health Scorecard Part 1 – Project Schedule Health

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring, Project Planning

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Schedule Health:

Your Schedule Health is Green if:

  • You have a schedule and…
  • It is actively managed and…
  • The forecast matches the published completion date

Your Schedule Health is Yellow if:

  • It is early in the project and you don’t have a schedule but are working towards one, or…
  • You have a schedule and the forecast has a greater “live date” than the current published date but corrective action is defined and probable, or…
  • The schedule is not being actively managed.

Your Schedule Health is Red if:

  • You don’t have a schedule, or…
  • You have one but the published live date cannot be met.
  • Note: Red can turn back to Green when a new schedule is approved and base-lined.

Note: Much more detail on the Project Health Scorecard can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

The Project Health Scorecard: Overview

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Some years ago, a company I worked for invested in improving our Project Management practices. They engaged with IBM professional services for 6 months to guide and mentor the in-house Project Managers. The first thing the IBM consultants did was establish a baseline that would be used to measure success at the end of the engagement. This baseline was “The Project Health Scorecard” (aka “PHS”). The PHS was measured at the beginning and end of the engagement as evidence of progress in our project management practices. I am a big fan of this concept and now use it on my project dashboard for all of my projects.

The PHS is an “early warning system” for potential project trouble. In that sense it is a child of Risk Management. Because of its condense and concise nature, it is appropriate for use in Project dashboards as well Project Portfolio dashboards, where you can see the health of all active projects at once. I typically update the PHS weekly in the regular project status meetings.

The PHS contains six key measures of project management best practices. Each measure is given a status value of “green”, “yellow” or “red”. I will present each of these measures along with the guidance for status values in an upcoming six part series as follows:

  • Part 1: Schedule
  • Part 2: Budget
  • Part 3: Scope
  • Part 4: Value
  • Part 5: Resources
  • Part 6: Risk

Note: Much more detail on creating the Project Health Scorecard and other Project Management topics can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

Risk Management Deeper Dive Part 7 – Risk Monitoring

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

In this final part of “Risk Management Deeper Dive” I will briefly discuss “Risk Monitoring”. Monitoring your risks involves the following:

  • Conducting regular meetings (as outlined in the Project Management Plan) where the risks and risk plans are reviewed. I recommend every week or every other week depending on the levels of risk exposure.
  • The Risk Owners, the Project Sponsor(s) and the Project Manager(s), at a minimum, should be present at the meetings.
  • In the meetings you should review the risks in order of risk exposure, with the highest exposure risks addressed first. In case your meeting time is limited, this ensures the most important risks are discussed.
  • The risk probabilities and impacts are reviewed and changed as needed.
  • The risk triggers are reviewed to ensure reliable monitors are in place. Any triggers tied to a near-term upcoming date are reviewed in detail.
  • Risk mitigation plans are reviewed to confirm the plans are being executed.
  • Risk contingency plans are reviewed to verify the plans are still valid.
  • Close any risks that are no longer valid.
  • New risks are raised and discussed. You can continue to use the Risk Hierarchy chart to help identify new risks.

After each meeting, the updated risk plan should be posted to the project repository. Open high-exposure risks should be highlighted in the project status report.

Note: Much more detail on Risk Management can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

 

 

 

Risk Management Deeper Dive Part 6 – Risk Ownership

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

A Risk Owner must be assigned to each risk. The Risk Owner for each specific risk is responsible for identifying and executing all parts of the Risk Management Plan related to that risk. It is the Project Manager’s responsibility to regularly review the risk with the Risk Owner and update the plan with new information. The Project Manager should also make suggestions and act as a “sounding board” to assist the Risk Owner.

Here are some questions to ask the Risk Owner:

  • Probability/Impact/Exposure – Have the mitigation plans reduced the probability and or impact? Have other conditions changed that have raised or lowered the probability and or impact?
  • Trigger – Has the Risk Owner assigned someone to monitor the risk trigger? Is the method of monitoring adequate? Will the risk be detected in time to react?
  • Mitigation Plans – Are these plans still adequate? Has the Risk Owner started execution of some or all of these plans? Are there additional plans that can be added?
  • Contingency Plans – Are these plans still adequate? Are there additional plans that can be added?

It is important that the Risk Owner understands their role. Some may assume the Project Manager is taking care of it for them. Make sure the roles and responsibilities are clear to all parties.

Note: Much more detail on Risk Management can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

Risk Management Deeper Dive Part 5 – Contingency Plans

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring, Project Planning ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

In the prior post I discussed risk mitigation strategies, which can reduce the potential impact of risks that haven’t occurred yet. In contrast, risk contingency plans are meant to deal with risks after they have occurred. It is sometimes amusingly referred to as “Plan B” (and “C”, “D”, etc if necessary). Contingency plans answer the question “What will we do if …”.

It can be much easier to create contingency plans in advance because you are not under the stress of the risk having already occurred and you have more time to brainstorm the potential plans. Anticipating risks and having well vetted contingency plans keeps you in control of the project and minimizes “crisis mode”.

Here are a few examples:

  • If there is a risk of testing taking longer than planned, you can have a list of additional testing resources identified to join the effort if testing falls behind.
  • If there is a risk of inclement weather disrupting outdoor activities, you can have indoor activities lined up to keep the project moving.
  • If there is a risk of a key resource leaving the project, you can have a consultant resource procured in advance to step in if needed.

As with all elements of Risk Management, conditions may change over time, so the contingency plans should be revisited on a regular basis to ensure they are still viable.

Note: Much more detail on Risk Management can be found in my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera