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Risk and Issue Management During Project Execution
Project Management · Chapter 8: Driving Project ExecutionSection 8.8 · lesson 51 of 7312 min · free with a free account
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In this lesson
Keeping the risk register working and resolving issues as they arise.
- Describe the four parts of risk monitoring during execution
- Distinguish a trigger from a risk event, and a risk from an issue
- Track contingency reserve draws against the cost of open risk responses
- Compare contingency plans with workarounds and set up an issue log with an escalation path
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Transcript
Everything said in the video, section by section (1,703 words). Read along, or search it.
Opening Case
A Supplier Warns of a Two-Week Slip
A supplier calls: the shipment may slip about two weeks. Has the risk happened yet? Priya is installing a new patient-scheduling system for Willowbrook Community Clinics, a made-up clinic network. Go-live is fixed, because the clinics' new appointment blocks start that day. Her risk register lists late delivery of the server hardware, with a trigger: a slip of more than five working days. It also has a prepared plan, to lease temporary servers, and nine thousand dollars of reserve set aside for it. On March third, the supplier's account manager phones. The shipment may slip about two weeks. What should Priya do first?
Risk Monitoring
A Working Register, Reassessed and Audited
Many projects treat the risk register as a planning document: written, approved, filed, and next opened when something goes wrong. That wastes it. In execution, the register is a working tool: opened at every scheduled review, edited whenever the facts change, and used to decide where attention and money go this week. Planning describes what might happen. Execution is when some of it does. Risk monitoring has four working parts. First, scheduled reassessment: a short review at a fixed rhythm, where each risk owner says whether probability, impact or timing has changed. A risk owner is named to watch one risk, and to start its planned response if it occurs. Risks grow and shrink: a supplier takes on a big order, or a deadline passes safely. Second, the risk audit: a deeper, less frequent check, often by someone outside the team, of whether the whole process works. Are responses carried out? Are owners really watching?
Triggers and New Risks
Warning Signs Versus Risk Events
A weekly reassessment can pass every item, while an audit finds no owner has checked a trigger in a month. Third, watching triggers. A trigger is a specific, observable sign that a risk is becoming more likely, or is about to occur, like a supplier confirming a later dispatch date. The risk event is the uncertain happening itself: the hardware actually arriving late. A trigger is the warning. The event is the occurrence. A trigger can fire and the event never happen, and a risk can occur with no trigger noticed. So a good trigger is concrete enough that two people would agree it fired. Fourth, noticing new risks. Work reveals what planning couldn't see, like faulty wiring behind a clinic wall. New risks are analyzed before joining the register, and so are risks a response creates.
Contingency Reserve
Three Disciplines for Spending Reserve
Plans set aside a contingency reserve: money or time held back to pay for identified risks that occur. In execution, three disciplines govern spending it. Draw on it only for an identified risk that actually occurred. Not for a late estimate, an unplanned improvement, or a problem never on the register. Those go through change control. Record each draw at once: date, risk, amount, and who approved it. And watch what's left against the risks still open. Some made-up numbers. A reserve of twenty-four thousand dollars has three draws: thirty-five hundred, nine thousand, and two thousand. That's fourteen thousand five hundred, leaving nine thousand five hundred. The open risks have planned responses costing four thousand, fifty-five hundred, and three thousand: twelve thousand five hundred in all. Nine thousand five hundred, minus twelve thousand five hundred, is minus three thousand. Not all three will happen. But if they did, the reserve would be three thousand short. Tell the sponsor now.
Risk Versus Issue
Has It Happened Yet
A risk is an uncertain future event that would affect the project's objectives. An issue has already happened, or is certain, and is affecting the project now. It has no probability left. So the test is one question: has it happened? If not, it belongs on the risk register. If so, it belongs in the issue log. When a risk's event occurs, the entry moves, not copied, so the problem isn't counted twice, and the register shows only what may still happen. Some issues were never risks, and go straight into the log. Some risks pass without occurring, and are closed with a note. And a fired trigger is not an occurred event. The risk stays on the register, at a higher probability, until the event is confirmed.
Quick Check
A Caterer's Van Breaks Down
Quick check. On the first training day, the caterer phones at nine. Their van has broken down, and today's lunch for forty staff won't arrive. Where does this go? Pause, and decide. The issue log. It has already happened, and it's affecting the day right now, so there's no probability left to watch. It was never on the register, and that's fine: some issues arrive unannounced. And it isn't a trigger, because the event itself is confirmed, not just a warning sign.
Issue Log
Fields Every Issue Needs
The issue log is the running record of every issue, one line each. Each field answers a question someone will eventually ask. A plain description of what happened and what it affects. One owner, accountable for resolving it. A priority, from how much damage it does, and how soon. The date raised and a target date, so its age can be measured against a promise. A status: open, in progress, escalated, or closed. And an escalation path. Leave a field out and the failure is predictable. No owner, and nobody acts. No date, and nobody can tell it's late. No path, and a stuck issue stays stuck.
Ownership and Escalation
Issue Owners and Escalation Paths
The issue owner is accountable for getting it resolved: doing the work, arranging it, or getting the decision. Often it's the same person who owned the risk. But the roles differ. A risk owner needs to notice and judge. An issue owner needs the authority and time to act. If the watcher lacks that authority, reassign the issue, and record it. Escalation passes an issue to someone with more authority. Two conditions send it up: time, when it's past its target, and reach, when it needs money, scope or schedule decisions beyond the owner. A typical path runs from issue owner to project manager to sponsor. Setting the rule in advance matters, because deciding mid-problem invites delay. Resolution time measures the process, not a person. Three issues took three, four and nine days, against a five-day target. The average, five point three, hides that one took almost twice the target. Some say escalate early, because senior people remove obstacles, and silence is costly. Others say frequent escalation overloads sponsors, and teaches teams to hand off. This course takes no side.
Executing Responses
Contingency Plans Versus Workarounds
When a risk occurs, the response is executed and recorded: when it started, what it cost, whether it worked, and whether it created new risks. A contingency plan is prepared in advance, with its trigger, owner and funding agreed, for use only if the risk occurs. A workaround is unplanned, for an occurred risk with no plan that fits. The difference is preparation, not quality. A contingency plan can start within hours. A workaround is devised under pressure, so it tends to be slower, costlier, and carries risks nobody has examined. The order of questions: is there a prepared plan? Does it still fit what happened, in size, timing and cost? If not, what's the quickest workable workaround, and who may approve it? And does any part go beyond the owner's authority? A workaround travels with an escalation more often, because nobody approved it in advance.
Sponsor Reporting
Five Elements of a Checkable Status
Risk and issue status reaches the sponsor in five elements: top risks, with owners and trigger status; new items since the last report; closed items; the trend; and decisions needed, each dated. Compare: risk status is green, a few issues are being worked on, the reserve is fine, and nothing is needed from the sponsor. It names no top risks, no new or closed items, and no trend. A few and fine can't be checked, so the sponsor can't tell whether nothing needed is true. Now: top risk, data load errors, owner named, trigger not fired. New: one risk and one issue. Closed: one issue. Reserve: nine thousand five hundred left, three thousand short of open responses, and falling. Decision needed by March twentieth: release more reserve, or reduce open risks. Every claim can be checked, and one decision is asked for.
Quick Check
Carrying Files Out of a Flooded Room
Quick check. A storm floods a clinic's basement records room. Nothing in the plan covers it, so staff carry the files upstairs to the conference room overnight. What kind of response is that? Pause, and decide. A workaround. The flood has happened, and no prepared plan fit it, so the response was devised under pressure. It isn't a contingency plan, which would have been agreed and funded in advance. Record it, and register any new risk it creates, like files stored where they aren't secure.
Case Resolved
From Fired Trigger to Managed Issue
Back to March third. The trigger, a slip of over five working days, has fired. But a phone estimate isn't the event. So Priya raises the risk's probability, asks the supplier for written confirmation, and asks the leasing company to hold equipment, which costs nothing. On March sixth, the supplier confirms in writing: twelve working days late. The event has occurred. She closes the risk and opens an issue, owned by Omar, the procurement lead, due March twentieth. First decision: the contingency plan fits the production servers, so she uses it as written, and records a nine-thousand-dollar draw. Second: the plan never covered the training environment, and training can't wait. So it's a workaround: Hana, the training lead, runs evening sessions on a separate part of the leased servers. Priya records it, and registers the new risk it creates: training data mixing with live data. Third: the leased set has no standby server. Accepting that gap is outside her authority, so she escalates to Helen, the sponsor, with the reserve figures. Helen accepts about three weeks without a standby. The date was worth more than the spare capacity, and the decision belonged to the person who owned the consequences.
Key Takeaways
Register, Issue Log, Reserve and Reports
To recap: keep the risk register alive, with reassessments, audits, watched triggers, and new risks. A trigger warns. The event is the occurrence, and only it moves a risk. If it has happened, move it to the issue log, with an owner, dates, and an escalation path. Draw contingency reserve only for identified risks that occurred, record every draw, and check what's left. Report top risks, new and closed items, the trend, and the decisions needed, each with a date.
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Project Management (Business 230) is a self-paced online course of 73 video lessons in 12 chapters, from starting and defining a project to planning, budgets, scheduling tools, proposals, contracts, execution, monitoring, closure, teams and certification. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.
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