RTFM Unit 3

Every Plan Involves Risk

Day three of the pre-course work. That means more chapters of the OGC manual:

• From the Processes section, Initiating a Project and Planning
• From the Components section, Plans and The Management of Risk
• From the Techniques section, Product Based Planning
• Appendix C, Risk Categories
  

Does anyone sense an element of repetition here? You have a process called Planning, a component called Plans, and a technique called Product Based Planning. Maybe they’re just forcing the message home, for those of us with short attention spans. Now, we all know planning is important, because:

If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail

On the other hand, maybe von Moltke had it right:

No plan ever survives contact with the enemy

To be fair, PRINCE2 does try to accommodate both maxims – planning is important, but it is seen as an iterative process, with the high-level project plan only fleshed out into named resources at the stage level.

What about all this risky business? The key quote is from Management of Risk, section 17.2.2:

The Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that the risks are identified, recorded, and regularly reviewed.

And … errr … that’s it! Actually doing something about those risks is down to the Project Board, as 17.2.2 goes on to explain (although, the PM does have to modify his plans to include agreed risk mitigation actions).

So, the key PRINCE2 risk management principle is simply this: CYA (Cover Your *rse). And, the secret to successful CYA implementation is: for f*cks sake record any and all risks in the Risk Log and keep banging on about them on a regular basis. Then you can say “Nah nah nah nah nah !!! I TOLD you so!”