MONTHLY COLUMN

CONTEMPORARY PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Selection and Initiation Questions Leading to Good Risk Management

By Timothy Kloppenborg, PhD, PMP

Ohio, USA

Editor’s note:  This is the 3rd article in a series on basic project management and leadership concepts by Timothy J. Kloppenborg, distinguished professor of management at Xavier University in Ohio and author of the textbook Contemporary Project Management, published in the USA in 2011 by Cengage Learning. Prof Kloppenborg’s short educational articles cover various aspects of planning and managing contemporary projects that should be useful for practitioners worldwide.  To offer feedback or to ask questions, feel free to contact the author or contact editor@pmworldtoday.org.

The reason we plan and perform project risk activities is to increase the probability of project success.  We do this by identifying risks, analyzing them, capitalizing on positive risks (opportunities) and minimizing negative risks (threats).  Standards such as PMBOK® and PRINCE2 detail specific processes to accomplish risk management.  In this column, I wish to propose questions you can ask as you go through other early project activities that you may not always consider when you think of risk.  Many of these questions are either on a scale or ask you to describe of how well we understand.  Specifically we will look at project selection and project initiation through completing signed project charter.

Project Selection

Projects need to be considered as investments.  The parent organization invests money, people’s time, and other resources in hopes of receiving deliverables that are worth that investment.  Just as with any other investment, the investment-reward equation also is discounted for the amount of associated risk.  At project selection questions that impact risk you may ask include:

• Have we discounted the expected return by an appropriate amount for risk?

• What is the risk of not doing this project?

• Do we have the ability to successfully complete this project?

• Is this project a good fit that will help us achieve our organizational objectives?

• Do we have leaders at each level (particularly sponsor and project manager) who are willing and able to lead this project?

• What significant concerns in the external environment may impact this project?

• Does the business case for this project include financial justification, strategic alignment, and emotional appeal?

• How fully do we understand the demands of performing this project?

• Are the needed resources available? If not, how confident are we in our ability to secure them?

More…

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About the Author Timothy J.Kloppenborg, PhD Author Tim Kloppenborg, Ph.D. is the Castellini Distinguished Professor of Management at Williams College of Business, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.  He has worked on projects for over 30 years as a manager, military officer, trainer, consultant, and professor.  Dr. Kloppenborg has been certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI) since 1991. A retired US Air Force Reserve officer with experience in transportation, procurement, quality assurance, manufacturing, construction, and information systems, he brings experience from a wide variety of industries and organizational systems to his project management instruction. He has authored nearly 100 articles, papers and books, including Contemporary Project Management, Project Leadership, and Managing Project Quality.  Tim can be contacted at kloppenborgt@xavier.edu.

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