Moving from project to programme risk management adds complexity to risk management processes and governance. Projects in a programme are often centered around the same businesscase and therefor aiming at the same overall business objectives. But to programme manage the projects in the programme, the programme objectives needs to be broken down into related project objectives. In relation to the objectives, risk management has to be established on both project and programme level and there needs to be mechanisms in place to be able to escalate and deescalate risks between the project and programme level. Risks that are “only” a threat to the project level needs to be handlede at the project level. Risks that could be a threat to several projects in the programme needs to be escalated to the programme risk level. To support that there needs to be clear escalation criteria in place and a close collaboration between programme risk manager and the project managers around programme risks (escalated project risks).
Another aspect of programme risk management is how to manage risks that are related to dependencies between projects in the programme. Often projects in the programme can “produce” risks for other projects in the programme for instance by design or misdesign of deliverables that other projects in the programme are dependent on. The programme risk process needs to support dialouge and mitigation across projects in the programme to manage these types of programme risks.
The risk management standards supports programme and project management but are not alway crips on how to establish mechanisms between the levels and between projects in the programme. Contact me to hear more about programme risk management and how to implement it in your programme.