What is the difference between issue and risk in project management

The following diagram shows the course of a risk in the context of risk and problem management. Often one also speaks of crisis management when a risk occurs — whereby crisis then tends to point to something very serious that requires highest attention.

Note that many risks fortunately do not materialise and disappear into thin air over time. Tip: In the case of risks that you cannot reduce or avoid with measures, pay attention to early warning signals triggers so that you are better prepared should the risk actually occur.

Another important point you should keep in mind: If you do not talk about risks in your project, then you will probably often have to struggle with problems. These problems have certainly arisen from risks that no one has paid attention to in the past.

Unfortunately, the following statement applies to many projects:. A risk is an uncertainty. The definition of an issue is not so clear in project management and even the PMBOK does not provide more clarity. Issues are not uncertainties. Issues are problems, conflicts or open questions. They often suddenly appear somewhere and are issues that need to be solved, dealt with or clarified. Even if a risk occurs, you have a problem or an issue.

The term impediments is used mainly in agile projects. Impediments are obstacles and problems of any kind that hinder the Scrum team, but especially the developers, in the efficient execution of their work. Impediments are e. One of the many tasks of a Scrum Master is to support the developers in the documentation and removal of impediments. If no one cares about these impediments, the achievement of the sprint goal may no longer be guaranteed.

Most of the time you encounter impediments during the Daily Scrum Meeting or the Sprint Retrospective. Do you find yourself working overtime, trying to deal with unexpected disruptions? Some negative events that you thought might happen has now occurred. And it's costing you more time and energy than you thought possible. Well, let's talk about project risks and issues, the differences, and why it's so important to manage risks. Let's examine a risk statement and underscore some key attributes of risks.

Here's a risk statement:. Because the project team failed to review the requirements with the users, the project team may not meet the user's needs, resulting in unsatisfied users.

Notice the risk: project team may not meet the user's needs. Think of risk as events or conditions that might happen in the future. So, how does an issue differ from a risk? Where a risk might happen, an issue has happened. When a threat occurs, it becomes an issue or problem. What type of effect will they have? You should consider whether they will delay your project, will they end up increasing the cost of the project and will they end up affecting the quality of the final product or service?

The best way to help the entire team to understand these risks is to quantify them and give them a figure that everyone can clearly comprehend. For example, how many days is the risk likely to delay your project by? What type of failure rates does it carry? How much of a percentage increase will it bump your costs up by? Giving risks a figure makes it a more real possibility as it is no longer just an abstract possibility, it is a real threat with real consequences.

Once your risks have been identified, the next step in effective risk management is to identify and examine ways to mitigate and reduce the risk. Is there anything you and your team can do in order to reduce the impact the risk will have on your project, or to eliminate the risk all together? If a risk has been identified regarding the reliability or cost of a supplier, can you investigate the services of anther vendor who may charge less or be more reliable?

If you push back the deadline for your project, will it help you to increase the quality of the end product? Can your marketing team create a campaign to create interest before the launch of your product in order to increase awareness and demand for your product? You should aim to have a plan in place regarding each potential risk, so that they can be dealt with should the risk become an issue.

Project Risk Management Methods — Part 1. It is essential to have a mitigation or risk management strategy, but you must also ensure that you allocate ownership and responsibility of that plan to a team member or a separate team completely. A strategy cannot be acted upon unless activated by its owner and so by giving the responsibility of that plan to a team member, you are ensuring that your risk management strategies are going to be implemented when needed and as quickly as possible.

For example, if you have identified a risk with a supplier, giving the responsibility of mitigating that risk to the person who is dealing with that supplier, they can act quickly should a problem arises rather than having to wait to get in contact with you as project leader before a decision can be made.

Project Risk Management Methods — Part 2. Essentially, risk management is the process of identifying potential risks to the success of your project and the process of putting in place strategies and procedures which will mitigate the impact should those risks come to fruition.

Risk management is a vital part of the planning process and as project manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that this vital step is not overlooked in favour of speed. The lack of a risk management strategy can ultimately cause a delay in your project, increased costs and even the project stalling and failing completely.

There are a huge number of unknown variables with any project, no matter how well you plan. All managers from experienced leaders to project manager apprentices should expect problems to arise and should develop issues management skills which will help to deal with these issues timely and effectively in order for the project to continue.

Issues that arise during a project may be unforeseen, but they also may be from risks which had been identified during the planning phase of the project. In order to get closure on the issue and to minimise the effect the issues have on the project, you need to have your action plan kick in quickly and get the issue resolved before it grows in to a serious problem.

Once an issue presents itself, the first thing you need to aim to do is to fully understand and comprehend the issue. You need to find out what has happened and what, or who, has been affected. You also should look at whether this issue had been flagged as a potential risk at planning stage.

If it had been, what, if anything, has already been done to try and mitigate the impact of the issue. Only once you fully understand all aspects of the problem, can you begin to tackle it in the most effective manner.