(8.5) Risk Response Planning

(8.5.1) Process Input

... generated by predecessor processes

(8.5.2) Process Definition

Risk Response Planning is the process for "[...] developing options and actions to enhance opportunities, and to reduce threats to project objectives" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 237).

"Planned risk responses must be appropriate to the significance of the risk, cost effective in meeting the challenge, timely, realistic with in the project context, agreed upon all parties involved, and owned by a responsoble person" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 260).

The subject Risk Management operates on the base of other risk concerning concepts

(8.5.3) Tools and Techniques

PMBOK Mentioned Methods

  • Strategies for negative risk or threats are
    • Avoidance "[...] which naturally involves changing the project management plan..."
    • Transfer the risk effects "to a third party", what naturally does not eliminate the risk
    • Mitigation which "[...] implies a reduction of probality and/or impact of an adverse risk event to an acceptable threshold"
  • Strategies for positive risk or threats are
    • Exploiting which is a collection of positive effects
    • Sharing by which benefits will be (partially) given to "third parties"
    • Enhancing for getting more of the benefitis
  • Strategy for both threats and opportunities is
    • Acceptance because one cannot change the situation
  • Contingent response strategy tries to combine risk responses and conditions under which the occured risk shall be responded

(comp. PMBOK3, pp. 261ff)

Open Source Tools

  • myPmpsFactory offers an integrated risk register.This register allows to define risk responses which than can easily be connected to risks. This 'template' can be edited by Open Office 3 (Calc).

(8.5.4) Process Output

  • Updates of  the Risk Register are evoked by adding the planned responses into the risk register and all connected information. At least from now on the risk register contains
    • "Identified risks, their descriptions", and the corresponding links into the WBS and the RBS
    • "Risk owners and assigned responsibilities"
    • "Outputs from the qualitative and quantitative risk analysis"
    • "Agreed-upon response strategies"
    • "Specific actions to implement the chosen response strategy"
    • "Budget and schedule activities required to implement the chosen responses"
    • "Contingency reserves" of time and cost
    • "Contingency plans and triggers that call for their execution"
    • "Fallback plans"
    • "Residual risks that are expected to remain after planned reponses have been taken"
    • "Secondary risks that aris as a direct outcome of implementing a risk response"
    • "Contingency reserves"
  • Updates of  the Project Management Plan can be evoked by integrating changings for being able to response a risk
  • Risk Related Contractual Agreements like insurances can be installed for transfering negative risks

(comp. PMBOK3, p. 263f)

(8.5.5) Output Using Successor Processes

Successors using the initially generated output as own input(1):

Processes using the updates as input(2):

  1. For details see FAQ::Q001:1
  2. For details see FAQ::Q001:2