Hello all,
I will offer up an apology right off the bat, just in case I am posting this in the incorrect catagorie.
I am an entry level BA with coming up to 2 years experience. As part of my development, I have been tasked with conducting a review of our change delivery teams approach to risk management.
I have already engaged other members of our internal change community to understand peoples perspective on the pros and cons to our approach and am happy to share these details with anyone that's interested. What I am looking to do now Is build an understanding of other peoples approach to risk management, the pros and cons that their method carries and opinions on what they consider to be best practice.
In the interest of declaring my big requirements up front (and at the risk of die hard Agile fans already clickinging away from this thread): - When I say risks, I am actualy talking about RAID management. - I am less interested in the software used to support RAID management as this element of our process is (all but defiantly) out of scope of my review. - The scope of RAID management I would like to look at is the entire time line from identification to conclusion of a RAID item.
Thanks in advance for your time and any help you may be able to offer.
Gareth,
Define RAID.... that would help me, anyway....
Hi David,
I forget that acronyms aren't universal.
RAID is Risks, Assumptions, Issues & Dependancies, and in context of my question, from a project/programme management point of view.
Hi Gareth,
I think its important when delivering a BRD to consider and include a section on all 4 of these. Be careful to only include those that are specific requirements risks, etc. There is a danger that the project may use the BRD as a repository for the project risks / issues (should be a separate risk / issue register for them managed by the PM). An example of a risk / issue not to include is that developer resources may not be available to deliver on time.
Comment about each:
Risk - should always include a mitigation for each risk. This shows that you have not only recognised there is a risk but have taken action to mitigate that risk.
Assumptions - very important to include the assumptions you have made when preparing the requirements. So if any of the assumptions prove to be wrong you can revisit your requirements accordingly
Issues - actually thinking about it, I probably put risks and issues in the same group and include a mitigation for both
Dependencies - include things like other dependent projects e.g. if your project depends on functionality delivered by another project then include it here. Plus if some of your requirements depend on the delivery of some others, include that as well.
As a BA you may be moved off the project once you've delivered your document, so you may not get the chance to follow through on what you have identified. The Risks / issues and dependencies should be included in project registers and tracked by the PM. Assumptions probably just apply to your document and once the document is signed off by the business probably don't need to be tracked further.
Kimbo
Hi Kimbo,
Thanks for your input, our standard BRD template has a section for referencing RAID items that have been added in the central register. I have always wondered if this approach results in stakeholders signing off the BRD without fulling understanding the assosiated RAID items (do they actualy visit the register when reviewing the document or do they assume that because it has been logged, its all in hand?).
Where our process falls down (in my opinion) is once the Risk/Assumption/Issue/Dependancy has been logged, the formal process is over, no socialisation, sign off or regular review happens with the exception of in the project control board that may be well attended at the start of a project but not so well as the project matures.
As I have read this post back to myself, I think I may have stumbled on one root casue.
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