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Managing Project Risks

Review tools and processes that help mitigate risk and increase quality as companies demand products and services faster and cheaper.

Understanding and managing risks in delivering quality products is key to customer satisfaction.

This class is offered face-to-face or online.

Announcing a New and Better Online Platform! Beginning in fall 2019, UWM’s School of Continuing Education will join UWM faculty and staff in using Canvas for its online and blended courses. Canvas was chosen by UWM because it is a user-friendly, intuitive platform implemented by colleges and universities across the U.S. D2L (Desire to Learn) will be discontinued. There will be online tutorials available to help you learn Canvas. Instructors and staff are available to help you access and become comfortable with this new system.

The PMI Registered Education Provider logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

This course can be applied to the Project Management Certificate.

Instructor

Barbara Farmerie, MBA, PMP

Barb Farmerie was born in Pittsburgh, PA, but has been a resident of Milwaukee for more than 20 years. Much of that time was spent working for MillerCoors as an IT development manager where she delivered business application projects throughout ... read more

Who Should Attend

Working professionals – apply tools and templates to advance your career
Recent college grads – learn how risk management fits into new job requirements
Career changers – increase your effectiveness in applying concepts and tools of risk management

Benefits and Learning Outcomes

Align teams around high-risk decisions and buy in of stakeholders
Minimize uncertainty in risky decisions and avoid project ‘land mines’
Learn ways to integrate quality and risk management into project work plans
Practice defining and delivering stakeholder satisfaction

Course Outline/Topics

Course Outline

1) Get Started

Workshop objectives and expectations
Activity: cite examples of successful projects
Definitions review

2) Plan for Quality

Brief history of quality in corporate America, Malcolm Baldridge Award, ISO Standards
Discussion: review processes and tools used in successful projects
Securing requirements from project stakeholders
Quality assurance vs. quality control
Developing a quality management plan
Activity: create a quality management plan

3) Quality vs. Risks

Balancing tradeoffs of time/cost/quality
Project level balancing
Business case balancing
Organization level balancing
Determining risk management strategies
Risk management strategies
Quality control checklist for starting projects
Activity: cite examples of unsatisfactory deliverable or unhappy clients

4) Risk Road Map

Project risk management overview
Risk management plan contents review
The role of project teams in risk and quality management
The value of Risk Breakdown Structures (RBS)
Samples of RBS
Review of tools for identifying risks: fishbone diagrams, mind maps, SWOT analysis

5) Target Project Risks at the Business Case, Project Charter and Project Schedule

Identify risks at the business case with questionnaire
Activity: identify risks at business case level – case study
Identify risks at the project charter level with questionnaire
Activity: identify risks at the project charter level – case study continued
Checklist for identifying risks at the project schedule level
What is a risk register?

6) Stakeholders and Risk Assessment

Evaluate stakeholder risk sensitivities
Activity: assess your personal risk tolerance
Risk bias
Qualitative risk assessment
Risk assessment tools: impact & probability worksheet, risk assessment matrix
Activity: assess risk – case study continued
Quantitative risk assessment

7) Develop a Risk Register

Elements of the risk register
Risk strategies for preventive actions
Defining risk triggers and thresholds
Defining reactive actions
Activity: develop a risk register – case study continued
What to do with these risks: integrating risk actions into the project schedule
Activity: reducing risks in the project management plan
Using the Risk ID Checklist

8) Balancing Quality vs. Risk

Integrating quality and risk into the project management plan
Activity: ways to shorten the schedule
Activity: review key takeaways, course debrief

Testimonials

"What I enjoyed most was the diverse group of students providing a wide range of shared examples and experiences.

" — Peter Schoepp, 2019

"Thank you so much for the templates and the knowledge shared in this class. I used the risk register in a meeting today and it worked perfectly!" — Susie Hallett, IEWC