Do you need a Risk Register Design Template for your Balanced Scorecard Project?
What is a Risk Register?
As the name implies, it is simply a list of risks along with clear risk description, which you identify during the project planning process. And yes, a Balanced Scorecard Project is a project, and risk identification and management is a key part of achieving success. That's why it is always wise to create a risk register and identify potential risks. It's also how you plan out your risk response plan in an organized fashion including your professional judgement as to the probability and impact of identified risk.
What is Risk Management?
In the context of project management and the balanced scorecard, risk management is an activity each project manager undertakes at the beginning of every project. Managing risk proactively throughout the project lifecycle is key project manager task. It is the proactive identification of potential project risks, assignment of probabilities of each risk event occurring and making a determination how you will respond to each risk. Finally, it is executing your risk response plan, and dynamically adjusting your risk
What Does One Do With Risks Besides Make a List of Them?
For each risk you, the project manager identifies, you have three or four possible approaches you can take to managing them:
- Accept the Risk
- Avoid the Risk by Transferring the Risk
- Mitigate the Risk
- Insure Against the Risk (Literally, buying an insurance policy against the risk)
Each of these approaches has its pros and cons. But your options are normally limited by both the type of risk you have identified, the cost of each risk mitigation approach you decide to take, risk priority and the realistic expectation of your risk mitigation strategy being successful.
Set Up a Risk Management Process
Project managers have many moving parts of the project on their plate. One of the key tasks is to set up a risk management process and create a mechanism to manage a risk log once they have identified risks. Aside from having a risk register template like the free one you can get here, they also need to have a documented risk management plan. It is imperative that the project manager thoroughly document each risk, the associated risk ID number, the risk category, risk rating, risk probability, responsible person, risk ownership, brief description of each risk and the overall risk score of the project.
Project Management Software and Quantitative Risk Analysis
Most project management software comes with the ability to not only list each project risk, but for the project manager to incorporate project stakeholders in the risk identification, quantitative risk analysis and qualitative risk analysis process that the project manager needs to lead.
Risk Management Tool Environment
In today's environment, it is entirely possible, using a platform like Microsoft Teams, with the full suite of office products, including MS Project, Vizio, Excel and Sharepoint to identify, track and manage every risk throughout the full project lifecycle.
Risk Impact Assessment
Now that you have taken the time to identify all possible project risk, established your risk management plan, configured your risk management tool environment, it's time to dive deeper, this time into risk impact. As you can see, risk management is actually a iterative process, and this activity will appear to have already been performed. However, experienced project managers come to realize that your initial pass is just that, the initial pass.
Analyze Risks as They Arise
As your project progresses, your environment may change and present new risks. For example, perhaps you were assured that certain Subject Matter Experts or SMEs, would be available, full-time, for requirements analysis on your project. However, a layoff was just announced and that person is no longer available, nor is any backup available. This will definitely have an unexpected potential impact on your project.
Risk Impact Assessment on Your Project Schedule
Once you have your project risk register set up and being used to track risks, you also need to establish a regular assessment of any realized risk events against your project schedule. Will the missing SME negatively affect your project plan? Better update your risk response plan and your project risk register.
Project Team Member Risk
While the project manager should be solely responsible for selecting his project implementation team, this is rarely the case. Once the project team is established, however, and the project is underway, one of the highest risk events you should plan for is project team turnover. Rarely is there enough budget to over-staff a position. That's when the savvy project manager will fall back on both his project risk register, where this potential risk will have been identified. Time to take action.
Some Common Risk Categories
While our free template provides you with a simple risk register framework, it is useful to be aware of some common risk categories:
- Unclear Customer Objectives
- Unclear Critical Success Factors
- Requirements Not Understood
- Production Downtime Impact
- Undocumented Third Party Services
- Ongoing Escalation Events
- Ramp Up Participation in a New Product Release
- Functionality Gaps
- Industry Specific Solutions
- No Comparable Installations
- High Number of Interfaces
- Expected Performance Issues
- Incomplete Contract Requirements
- Non-T&M Payment Terms
- No Risk Sharing Agreements
- Unclear Roles
- Customer Financial Obligations
- Complex System Architecture
- Inadequate Technical Infrastructure
- Hardware Partner Not Involved
This is just small part of a much larger list of risk categories and events that you typically find on large IT projects. Many of these overlap with other types of projects, such as a Balanced Scorecard Strategy Management Project.
Make Your Life Easier - Use Our Risk Register Design Template
Though SAP SEM CPM, or SAP Strategic Enterprise Management - Corporate Performance Management and the Balanced Scorecard Application provide a place to put every part of your strategy, you need a way to organize your effort. Our SAP CPM/BSC Risk Register Design Template provides:
- A place to define each risk
- A way to organize and quantify each risk
- A way to identify top level risk categories
- A way to structure risk into a risk breakdown structure
- A convenient way to design and develop a risk catalog for your Balanced Scorecard initiative.
Implementing the Balanced Scorecard is one of the most important and strategically valuable activities you will undertake. Each member of your team will be able to use this risk register template to help complete the design and implementation of your Balanced Scorecard.
Don't be one of the 10%. Ten percent of what?
"Less than 10% of strategies effectively formulated are effectively executed."
Fortune.
More reading:
Top 10 Benefits for Financial Analysis in the Latest SAP EP4