Article / Exercise : Managing Risks and Issues
Free Risk Register Courtesy of pduOTD.com & Susanne Madsen
Nine Page Article with Exercise & Template by: Susanne Madsen
Category C PDU 1 PDU (article) to 6 PDUs (complete the exercise) – Free PDUs

Susanne Madsen provides a nine step to exercise to help you and your team “proactively identify and mitigate risks” allowing fewer issues to arise on your projects.

“The effective management of risks is all about being proactive as you need to identify and tackle potential concerns before they turn into problems. The effective management of issues requires you to stay focused and calm whilst deciding on the best option for moving forward.” – @Susanne Madsen

Risk and issue management is one of the most fundamental parts of a project manager’s job. It is an activity which needs to be attended to weekly, or sometimes even daily or hourly. Risk and issue management is an area where your positive and proactive mindset will really be put to the test.

Although the Project Manager is responsible for the facilitation and management of the risks and issues process, they cannot and should not do it in isolation.

“When you involve your team and stakeholders, not only do you improve the quality of the process, you also help promote a shared sense of responsibility for the project’s successes and failures”.

The process for managing a risk is different from that of managing an issue. This exercise will help you to identify and describe the differences between a risk and an issue and which management techniques to use for each.

Susanne also reminds us that risks don’t always mean BAD …. that risks can be positive. Identifying the positive risks and knowing how you would handle that situation should it arise is often an overlooked part of risk management.

Choose a project you are working on and go through this exercise to:

1. Understand the differences between a Risk and an Issue
2. Carry out a thorough analysis of your risks and issues
3. Identify what their ultimate source is.
4. Determine the severity and probability
5. Get to the root cause and take action at that level.

Click to download Susanne’s Risk Register for your use
Shown as example – Exercise Page 2

I love Susanne’s writing/mentoring style and I know you will too. She has written a practical workbook filled with tips, tools and techniques for everyone who wants to coach themselves and others to become highly valued and truly successful project managers and leaders.

I had the pleasure of reviewing a pre-release copy of the Project Management Coaching Workbook:

“Whether you are building your own project management career development plan or managing the professional development of project managers, this book is a must-have. It provides a unique methodology for developing the task management and team management/leadership skills of the project manager and would be an excellent tool for formal professional development and mentoring programs.”

— Martin Chernenkoff, founder of pduOTD.com – PDU of the Day

Presenter/Author: Susanne Madsen ( LinkedIn @SusanneMadsen ) is a sought after project manager, mentor and coach and author with over 15 years experience in managing and rolling out large change management programs. A PRINCE2 practitioner and a qualified corporate & executive coach, she works as a Program Director for one of the world’s largest financial institutions. Her newest book The Project Management Coaching Workbook is not to be missed. Susanne is dedicated to helping organizations deliver better change management programs and is passionate about coaching and mentoring project managers to improve their leadership capabilities, performance and well being.

PDU Category C documentation details:

Process Groups: Initiating & Executing, Planning

Knowledge Areas: 10 – Communication 11 – Risk

• 10.2 Plan Communications
• 10.4 Manage Stakeholders Expectations
• 11.1 Plan Risk Management
• 11.2 Identify Risks
• 11.5 Plan Risk Responses

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’ To easily document this activity place the notes and risk planning/mitigation information from this exercise in your folder

Click to download Susanne’s Risk Register for your use

Click to access Susanne’s Managing Risks and Issues article /exercise.

Great Articles! Click here to go to Susanne Madsen’s site