Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The foundation of risk management is asking, “What could possibly go wrong?” Some people, however, shrug when asked while others make a list of a million things.

A recent chat:

Person A: What do you know about risk management?

Me: A “risk” is a problem that hasn’t occurred yet.

Person A: What do you do in risk management?

Me: Ask, “What could possibly go wrong?” Record all the answers. Plan for what you would do if something actually went wrong. Watch for tips of impending wrong-ness. Implement your plans.

The conversation ended there. I thought more about it later and concluded that there is one big problem with risk management:

The person answering the question, “What could possibly go wrong?”

There are people who shrug. “Nothing,” is there answer. Nothing? “Sure,” they continue, “nothing. There are no potential problems here.”

Then there are people like me. “How many things do you want me to write? Ten? A hundred? A thousand?” People like me see possible problems every where with every thing and every one. Here is a generic list:

• people fall ill
• people quit their job
• people become angry and pout
• people don’t like each other
• some people are jerks
• the weather becomes bad and everyone stays home
• the roof leaks and destroys our computers and backups
• an earthquake tumbles the building and destroys all our work

And I haven’t mentioned anything about the product being impossible to build.

I guess the problem with risk management is much like all the other problems with project management.

The source of all problems is people.

Ask the fundamental question of the right person. Do a lot of filtering on the answer.