PROC04 Risks review

EGI-Engage project:	Main page	WP1(NA1)	WP3(JRA1)	WP5(SA1)	PMB	Deliverables and Milestones	Quality Plan	Risk Plan	Data Plan
	Roles and responsibilities	WP2(NA2)	WP4(JRA2)	WP6(SA2)	AMB	Software and services	Metrics	Project Office	Procedures

Title	Risks review
Link	https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/PROC04_Risks_review
Owner	Quality Manager
Status	Approved
Approval date	28 Oct 2015
Related document	https://documents.egi.eu/document/2595

Overview

The goal of this procedure is to identify risks and plan proper response to prevent risk occurrence. 

Definitions

Please refer to the EGI Glossary for the definitions of the terms used in this procedure.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", “MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Entities involved in the procedure

Involved actors are project team members who take part in risk management process. All actors have clearly assigned roles and responsibilities, which are defined as follow:

Quality and Risk Manager

Responsible for:

• coordinating project risk management activity
• defining and keeping up to date risk management plan
• helping Work Package leaders in risk analysis and response
• performing risk registry reviews
• reporting to Project Management Board risk management status

Technical Coordinator

Responsible for:

• coordinating with Work Package leaders implementation of risk response plan
• performing risk analysis and coordinating contingency planning tasks within the project

Work Package leaders

Responsible for:

• identifying and defining new risks
• reviewing the status of identified risks during risk registry review
• implementing an appropriate risk response plan within their WP
• reporting on risk status and its occurrence to Quality and Risk Manager
  

Project Management Board

Responsible for:

• approving risk response for risks level high and extreme
• supporting Technical Coordinator in performing risk analysis

Timing

This section describes when and how often the Risk Management Process will be performed during the project life cycle. The Risk Management Process timing is as follow:

1. Continuously (whenever necessary)
   • Work Package Leaders are
     • applying risks response measures
     • reporting by email on risk occurrence to the Quality and Risk Manager
     • reporting by email on new risks identified to the Quality and Risk Manager
2. On a monthly basis (whenever necessary)
   • Quality and Risk Manager is
     • reporting by email to PMB about risks occurrence and newly identified risks which require PMB attention.
3. Every 3 months
   • Quality and Risk Manager is conducting risk registry review with Work Package leaders (through Activity Management Board), including:
     • identifying deprecated risks
     • reassessment of impact and probability of existing risks
     • reviewing of risk response
     • identification of new risks
   • Quality and Risk Manager is reporting during PMB meeting about the results of the review.

Steps

Risk identification

Input: Expertise of actors involved ;

Output: Initial entry in risk registry

Risk identification is a process that involves finding, recognizing, and describing the risks that could affect the achievement of the project objectives. It is used to identify possible sources of risks in addition to the events and circumstances that could affect the achievement of objectives. It also includes the identification of potential consequences.

Risk are identified:

1. Periodically: 
   • During Risk registry review through interviews and brainstorming conducted by Quality and Risk manager with Work Package leaders
2. Continuously (whenever necessary):
   • Work Package leaders are expected to inform the Quality and Risk manager in case of identification of new risks or occurrence of a risk

Each risk is supposed to be described in following way:

• Risk number- (mandatory) unique risk identifier assigned by Quality and Risk Manager
• Risk description - (mandatory) short description of the risk
• Likelihood - (mandatory) Likelihood (probability) is the chance that something is going to happen
  • Options: Unlikely, Possible, Likely, Almost Certain
• Impact - (mandatory) A consequence (impact) is the outcome of an event and has an effect on objectives
  • Options: Minor/Moderate/Major/Catastrophic
• Risk level - (mandatory) The level of risk is its magnitude. It is estimated by considering and combining impact and likelihood. Likelihood is the chance that something might happen.
  • Options: Low/Medium/High/Extreme (automatically calculated based on Risk likelihood and impact matrix)
• Consequences - (mandatory) description of the consequences the risk will have in case of occurrence
• Deliverables - Deliverables which might be impacted in case of occurrence
• KPIs - Impacted KPIs
• WP1-WP6 - (mandatory) Impacted WPs
• Treatment - (mandatory) description of possible actions to avoid or mitigate the risk
• Owner - (mandatory) A risk owner is the WP leader that has been given the authority to manage a particular risk and is accountable for doing so.
• Trend - (mandatory) Indication of risk trend comparing to the previous assessed risk status
  • Options: Stable, Improving, Degrading, New, Deprecated
• Comment for PMB - additional comments for PMB after Work Package leaders periodic rick review (every 3 months)
  

Risk analysis

Input: entry in the Risk Registry

Output: Prioritized list of risks (list of risks that pose the greatest threats), risk trends

During the analysis the risk level is evaluated by means of interviews to the Work Package leaders and other relevant actors performed by the Quality and Risk manager. Risk rating (level) is calculated according to likelihood and impact matrix.

Risk likelihood descriptors

The following table contains the risk likelihood descriptors:

Rating	Description	Likelihood of occurrence
1	Unlikely	Not expected, but there's a slight possibility it may occur at some time.
2	Possible	The event may occur at some time.
3	Likely	There is a strong possibility the event will occur
4	Almost Certain	Very likely. The event is expected to occur in most circumstances

Risk impact descriptors

The following table contains the risk likelihood descriptors:

Rating	Description	Project Objectives impact
1	Minor	Any risks which will have just a light impact on the project, still these must be addressed in time. Degradation of deliverable quality barely noticeable.
2	Moderate	Risks which will cause some problems, but nothing too significant. Reduction of deliverable quality requires approval.
3	Major	Risks which can significantly jeopardize some aspects of the project, but which will not compromise the success of the whole project. Reduction of deliverable quality unacceptable
4	Catastrophic	A risk that can be detrimental for the whole project

Risk likelihood and impact matrix (risk level)

The risk likelihood and impact matrix is a grid for mapping likelihood of each risk occurrence and its impact to the project objectives in case the risk occurs. Risks are prioritized according to their potential consequences on the project objectives.

Likelihood	Impact
	Minor	Moderate	Major	Catastrophic
Unlikely	Low	Low	Medium	Medium
Possible	Low	Medium	High	High
Likely	Medium	High	High	Extreme
Almost Certain	Medium	High	Extreme	Extreme

Risk response 

Input: Risk registry

Output: Risk response plan for each risk

Within this process the risk owner, who is responsible for given risk and its risk response, must be identified by Quality and Risk manager and Technical Coordinator. Risk response should be appropriate for the significance of the risk (risk level), cost-effective, realistic and agreed by impacted Work Packages leaders, Technical Coordinator and for high and extreme level risks also by PMB during periodic rick registry review (every 3 months). For each risk impact level the following table presents a suggested response, to be properly defined:

Following table presents for each Risk level expected response to be defined and involvement of Risk management team members.

Risk Impact level	Response
Minor	Accept Define recovery activities Monitor and review
Moderate	Avoid or Mitigate Define and implement mitigation activities Managed by monitoring or response procedures
Major	Avoid or Mitigate Define and implement controls mitigation activities recovery activities requires Project Management Board attention and definition of management responsibility
Catastrophic	Avoid or Mitigate Define and implement controls contingency plan recovery activities mitigation activities Must be managed by Project Management Board with a detailed treatment plan.

For each risk level the following table presents a suggested involvement of the actors:

Risk level	Involvement
	Technical Coordinator	Work Package leader	PMB
Low	Informed	Active engagement	Informed
Medium	Consulted	Active engagement	Informed
High	Active engagement	Active engagement	Consulted
Extreme	Active engagement	Active engagement	Active engagement

Risk control

Input: Risk registry

Output: Improved success of risk approach

Risk control is a process to improve efficiency of the risk management through continuously monitoring and adjustment. It implements risk response plan, tracking identified risks, performing risk reviews.
The main activities planned as part of risk control are:

1. Continuously (whenever necessary)
   • Work Package Leaders are
     • applying risks response
     • reporting on risk occurrence
     • reporting on new risks identified
2. On a monthly basis
   • Quality and Risk Manager is
     • reporting to PMB risk occurrences and newly identified risks which require PMB attention.
3. Every 3 months
   • Quality and Risk Manager is conducting the risk registry review with Work Package leaders, including:
     • identification of deprecated risks
     • reassessment of impact and probability of existing risks
     • review of risk response
     • identification of new risks
   • Quality and Risk Manager is reporting to PMB the results of the review.

Revision History

Version	Authors	Date	Comments