Top Ten Strategies for De-Risking Projects

In recent years, project management has been marred by high-profile failures that highlight the immense costs incurred due to project delays or cancellations. While project managers have historically evaluated projects based on completion of tasks and monetary progress, the manner in which projects are managed is changing.

A project may appear viable on paper but can fail spectacularly when it comes to execution. These failures and the consequences of not meeting project goals are known as risks. 

Risk management is an integral component of project planning, and de-risking projects is crucial to ensuring the success of your business. Here are ten effective strategies for de-risking your projects and keeping them running smoothly, efficiently, and free from potential hazards that can jeopardize even the most time-tested projects.

1. Identifying Project Risks

De-risking a project begins before any work even kicks off — it requires proactive identification of potential project risks. Project risks can include everything from budget constraints to unusual customer demands to technological limitations, and while these change with each project, they can often be similar to past projects of the same type. It’s important to conduct thorough risk assessments and involve all stakeholders to ensure all potential risks are identified. By identifying project risks early on, you can minimize disruptions, increase project success rates, and keep your business on track, even if changes are needed due to a risk becoming a reality.

2. Establishing Realistic Goals

Realistic goals are critical for effective risk management. Establishing achievable and measurable objectives for your project ensures that it stays on track and avoids unnecessary risks. Take into consideration factors such as time constraints, available resources, concurrent projects, and potential obstacles when establishing goals. This will allow you to develop effective de-risking strategies and make informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle. Realistic due dates, a manageable scope of work, utilization of available team members, and a budget that takes all costs into account can help reduce risks, making project success achievable.

3. Developing a Detailed Project Plan

Creating a comprehensive project plan that outlines each specific task, milestone, and deliverable, assigns tasks to resources, and sets deadlines for every task is vital in identifying potential risks associated with each task and developing strategies to mitigate them. This plan acts as a roadmap, guiding the team toward success while minimizing any uncertainties or obstacles. While creating a project plan is an essential part of project management, it is also a critical aspect of risk management that ensures your business stays on track and achieves its goals.

4. Allocating Resources Effectively

Resource allocation is another key element of de-risking a project. Identifying the specific resources needed for each task and assigning them accordingly can optimize resource allocation by considering the skills, availability, and workload of team members. This strategy ensures that the right people are working on the right tasks at the right time, maximizing productivity and reducing the chances of delays or bottlenecks — the major risks associated with resources.

5. Managing Project Changes

Even the most thoroughly planned out project will undergo some degree of change during its execution. As such, change management is crucial to minimize risks. This involves creating clear procedures for requesting, reviewing, and implementing changes and assessing the impact of changes on project timeline, budget, and resources. By maintaining clear communication channels, maintaining a sense of flexibility in how your project can be executed, and involving stakeholders in the decision-making process, you can efficiently adapt to changes and stay on track.

6. Communicating Clearly with Stakeholders

Effective communication is essential to establish clear channels of communication and ensure that all stakeholders are well-informed and engaged throughout the project. This includes customer stakeholders — it is important that you have a communication strategy for discussing risks with your customers as they arise. Regular updates, progress reports, and status meetings can help keep stakeholders informed and involved. Clear and transparent communication promotes trust and alignment, reducing the chances of misunderstandings, delays in task completion, and poor handoff of deliverables, all of which are frequent potential risks. By prioritizing effective communication, you can create a collaborative environment that keeps all stakeholders on the same page.

7. Using Agile Project Methodologies

Adopting an Agile approach can break down your projects into smaller, manageable tasks known as sprints. This allows for more flexibility, adaptability, and frequent feedback, reducing the risk of delays or bottlenecks. Agile methodologies promote collaboration and transparency, enabling teams to quickly respond to changing business realities. With its focus on iterative development and continuous improvement, Agile project management is a valuable strategy for de-risking projects because it creates a process of constant review and adjustment.

8. Implementing Risk Mitigation Strategies

Once project risks have been identified, it is essential to implement effective risk mitigation strategies. These strategies include developing contingency plans, setting up monitoring systems, and establishing protocols for addressing risks as they arise. By proactively addressing potential risks and having a plan in place, the disruptions and risks that arise can be corrected immediately, without the need to review and decide on how best to proceed, reducing the additional risk of delays caused by this mitigation decision process.

9. Tracking Project Progress

De-risking means being able to know the moment when a potential risk arises during a project. As such, monitoring and tracking project progress is crucial. By closely monitoring the progress of your project, you can identify any potential issues or delays early on and take corrective action to stay on top of the project’s timeline and make any necessary adjustments to keep it on track. Project tracking depends on collecting critical data, such as time entry, utilization, and employee skills, and having this data also enables you to improve future projects for further de-risking.

10. Front-Loading Trickiest Project Components

Lastly, it is crucial to avoid waiting until the end to address the more difficult and complex tasks in a project. It is important to subvert the natural inclination to foreground easier tasks and save riskier tasks for later —  to de-risk projects, front-load these challenging components, allowing ample time and resources to pivot if needed. By prioritizing high-risk tasks earlier in the project, teams can mitigate potential issues and avoid the chaos that often ensues when everything is left until the last minute. 

Create Stronger, More Viable Projects With Kantata

At Kantata, we understand that project success begins long before the project actually starts, and identifying and addressing risks is a major part of that success. Learn more about how managing projects with the Kantata Professional Services Cloud can help your professional services business see and mitigate risks before they impact your business.