Example: Putting risks into risk classes

Here are 10 risks identified in a Risk identification Workshop. These are captured as
they are brought up in the RIW; they are not in any particular order.
1. The new technology planned for this project will not work as expected which will
impact the final project cost and delay delivery which will impact client
satisfaction.
2. The team is coming off of a project that required a lot of overtime which will
impact their productivity leading to cost overruns and delays that impact client
satisfaction.
3. Competitor products are perceived as superior to ours leading to failure to win
the bid for the project.
4. Integration of our project with the clients system is more difficult than anticipated
leading to higher costs, schedule delays and a poor perception of the team by
the client during project integration.
5. The subcontractor does not deliver on time which impacts the overall delivery
schedule and client satisfaction.
6. The subcontractor delivers a product that does not meet our specifications or
does not work with our system in development which impacts cost, delivery
dates, and client satisfaction.
7. Changes the client wishes to add after development has begun impacts our
development effort which increases costs and causes delays of the project
delivery.
8. Release of the next version of the base system will be delayed which delays
delivery affecting client satisfaction.
9. The project lead architect is unavailable to work on the system after completion
of system design which impacts project quality during development and test
leading to poor quality perception by the client.
10. An IBM purchasing freeze prevents the team from getting upgrades to the

productivity tools used impacts productivity and project profit.

Consider using the three risk classes introduced in Module 1: Win (win the business),
Profit (making the expected profit, or meeting project costs), and client satisfaction. The
next page shows a possible collection of these risks into risk classes.
Copyright IBM Corporation 2010. All rights reserved.

Risk class example

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Example: Putting risks into risk classes

Win the Business

W1: Competitor products are perceived as superior to ours leading to failure to win the
bid for the project.

Profit
P1: The new technology planned for this project will not work as expected which will
impact the final project cost.
P2: The team is coming off of a project that required a lot of overtime which will impact
their productivity leading to cost overruns and delays that impact client satisfaction.
P3: Integration of our project with the clients system is more difficult than anticipated
leading to a poor perception of the team by the client during project integration.
P4: The subcontractor delivers a product that does not meet our specifications or does
not work with our system in development which impacts cost.
P5: Changes the client wishes to add after development has begun impacts our
development effort which increases costs.

Client Satisfaction
C1: The new technology planned for this project will not work as expected which will
delivery which will impact client satisfaction.
C2: The team is coming off of a project that required a lot of overtime which will impact
their productivity leading to delays that impact client satisfaction.
C3: Integration of our project with the clients system is more difficult than anticipated
leading to higher costs during project integration.
C4: The subcontractor does not deliver on time which impacts the overall delivery
schedule and client satisfaction.
C5: The subcontractor delivers a product that does not meet our specifications or does
not work with our system in development which impacts delivery dates, and client
satisfaction.

Copyright IBM Corporation 2010. All rights reserved.

Risk class example

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Example: Putting risks into risk classes

C6: Release of the next version of the base system will be delayed which delays
delivery affecting client satisfaction.
C7: The project lead architect is unavailable to work on the system after completion of
system design which impacts project quality during development and test leading to
poor quality perception by the client.

Note that some of the risks are repeated between the risk classes. It will be easier to
refer to risks by an identifier like a risk number as you work further through the risk
management process. The risk numbers need to change since risks are repeated
within the risk classes. In this example the risk are renumbered by their class.
Also, the risks were rewritten to focus on the risk class; that is, when profit is the risk
class parts of the risk not related to profit (or cost) were removed, and when client
satisfaction is the risk class impacts to cost or profit were removed. This is not a
requirement when combining risks into risk classes but it usually will help to focus the
discussion of the risk on the specific impacts to risk class.
Finally, note that many of the client satisfaction risks address schedule delays. It is
likely specific actions will be taken related to project schedule so that creating a new
schedule risk class is likely to be helpful. If a new schedule risk class is created look at
each risk again to see which should be placed in that new risk class and reassess the
wording to see if you need to include the risks in both schedule and client satisfaction.
Most of the risks probably dont need to be kept in the client satisfaction class since
addressing the schedule delays will also prevent impacts to client satisfaction.

Copyright IBM Corporation 2010. All rights reserved.

Risk class example

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