Implementation of the Risk Management Plan

The process of putting a strategic plan of managing identified threats and exploiting opportunities into action is called the implementation of the risk management plan. Such a process may take many forms – this depends on the business culture of the performing organization, history of previous efforts, available resources, number of individuals involved in the project, and other factors.

In addition, the implementation can be done in various ways. For instance, in a marketing campaign project a number of implementation approaches for the risk management plan are available to develop or maintain a competitive advantage. They include such methods as creating barriers to market entry, establishing competitive pricing, damping, using new unique technology, innovation, adjusting or reorganizing personnel management etc. Each of these methods implies a very different set of tools for implementation.

Resources

However, no matter what methods and tools you are going to choose to implement your risk management plan, there are three fundamental activities that define success of the overall implementation process. These are:

• Resource Acquisition. Before you can start implementing your risk management plan you need to be certain that correct quantity of required resources is available and ready for use. You can obtain the resources in a range of way, for example by purchasing with credit, renting/leasing, sub-contracting, shared arrangements, partnership etc.
• Resource Flow. It is important to manage the flow of resources. The key idea behind this is to ensure that the resources are available at appropriate levels in needed placed at required time. Hence the flow of resources should be managed in terms of quantity, location and time. If the use of resources is optimized then the risk management process is likely to generate optimum output.
• Resource Coordination. When the resources are acquired and allocated in a proper way now you need to coordinate the use of resources throughout the implementation process. The coordination requires you to develop detailed operational plans and conduct day-to-day oversight of the operations.

All the resources available for performing your risk management initiative will be the driving force that lets you make decisions on the scope of the implementation process. The way you acquire, use and coordinate the resources within the process determines the future of your project effort. Your resources include people, finances, time, buildings, technology, others.

Reviewing the Plan

During the implementation process of the risk management plan it is very important to ensure the plan remains current and efficient. Regular reviews help find out if the plan provides feasible and effective risk mitigation activities assigned to individuals who are responsible for success of the implementation process.

Throughout the process, risk identification should be made to take changing circumstances into consideration when responding to risks, hence the risk management plan should clearly identify what people are responsible for the maintenance.

Reporting on the Results

It’s a common practice of effective project implementation to add the outcome of the risk management activities in certain project reports so that it can be taken into account when making decisions on how efficiently the project has been performed and whether the risk management plan has been implemented appropriately. Team reports need to have a separate section dedicated to risk management results showing which threats have been identified, which opportunities have been exploited and how all this has been managed. The risk register document is used as the primary source of information on the identified risks and ways of mitigation. In case no risk have been identified and managed an appropriate record should be created in team reports.