
Define risk as the effect of uncertainty on objectives, including both losses and gains. Apply risk management across internal, external, and project environments to minimize negative impacts and maximize opportunities.
Identify the three components of risk: cause, event, and effect, and learn to assess likelihood and consequences to protect project objectives like schedule, scope, and cost.
Learn to distinguish risk from hazard: risk is the effect of uncertainty on objectives, hazard is a source of harm, guiding risk analysis and the hierarchy of controls.
Gain a working knowledge of risk management by identifying context, consulting stakeholders, assessing and treating risks, and continuously monitoring and communicating to keep the plan current.
Treat risk as a function of information, driving early research and feasibility analysis to reduce risk, while avoiding peak financial exposure by applying controls, insurance, and prevention costs.
Develop a proactive risk management plan by identifying potential events, their causes and consequences, assigning owners and deadlines, monitoring, and maintaining a risk register to reduce project risk.
Define the risk management context by outlining the project, internal, and external environments and linking objectives and scope to risks from changes in policies, governance, and external conditions.
Identify the project scope and product scope, relate them to internal and external environments, and use the work breakdown structure to guide risk identification.
Identify and assign clear roles for risk management, establishing accountability with a designated risk owner, and a collaborative process for context, analysis, controls, and reporting.
Collaborate and communicate across the project to manage risk by consulting stakeholders and involving technical experts. Empower ownership through proactive involvement and shared information that improves planning and outcomes.
Explore the risk continuum, from total certainty to total uncertainty, and learn how information moves risk curves toward known knowns and known unknowns, reducing unknown unknowns.
Use a structured, segmented approach to risk identification across equipment, content, and studio setup, consulting experts and researching to turn unknown risks into managed controls.
Learn to establish objective, shared numerical scales for risk assessment, differentiating likelihood and impact to avoid subjective judgments and reliably rank risks using a risk matrix.
Determine likelihood with a consistent organizational scale, grounding probability in context and scope to compare project risk. Use sound inputs and research-based statistics to ensure reliable risk assessment.
Assess consequences after likelihood using a tailored scale to gauge how bad a risk would affect project objectives. Categorize consequences into financial, environmental, reputational, schedule, and health and safety, with project-specific thresholds.
Identify and quantify risks, calculate risk score as likelihood times impact, and prioritize the highest rated risks to neutralize first, rather than address every low risk.
explains four ways to treat risk in risk management—avoid, mitigate, transfer, and accept—using data loss scenarios and backups to reduce likelihood and consequences.
Learn to treat hazards using the hierarchy of controls, from elimination to PPE, and apply these risk management steps to reduce exposure.
Continually monitor and update the risk register as the environment changes; ensure assigned reviewers update impact assessments at prescribed frequencies; use status report meetings to review the living document.
Learn to set review frequency and report risks to stakeholders, assess the environment and risk treatment effectiveness, and identify high-risk activities to optimize project risk management.
Identify and communicate lessons learned to reduce project risk, leverage collective intelligence, and establish a proactive risk management loop that informs future projects.
Projects are the way of doing business and organisations need skilled people who can manage them and operate effectively in a project environment. As more organisations adopt Project Management as the tool for the implementation of work, these skills are becoming ever so in demand.
Understand and Project Risk Management.
This program has been drawn from International Project Management Best Practice and developed to meet the requirements of the relevant unit of competence within Nationally Recognised Certificate IV in Project Management Practice in Australia.
This course is delivered in a practical real world context and whilst it is supported by theory it focusses on delivering the practical skills you can apply directly to your projects.
If you are managing projects, working in a project team or affected by projects in one way or another this course is for you. You will gain a practical insight into scope management exploring the following:
Introduction into Risk Management:
How to Establish the Context
How to Identify Risk
How to Assess Risks
How to Treat Risks
How to monitor, control and report risks
At the end of this program you will have a practical, working understanding of how to manage the scope of the Project. By completing the activities, you will have met most of the requirements of the Nationally Recognised unit: Apply Risk Management Techniques (BSBPMG415) as part of the Certificate IV in Project Management.
The reason for developing the course
I found that the resources provided to many students undertaking studies in Project Management were lacking. They were either;
too theoretical, which prevented students applying it to their workplaces;
not engaging, such as books or PDFs;
hard to understand: using complex language to illustrate otherwise simple concepts; or
incorrect, usually written by people without a true and practical understanding of the subject.
Online learning is difficult- I know, I am the worst online student. As a result, I have designed this course to provide students with an additional resource to enhance their understanding of the topic. The course is based upon strong theoretical foundations, but delivered in a practical way- so you can apply what you learn to better your projects.
I have also tried to make the course engaging using a mix of visual and auditory delivery accompanied by tasks which you can use to test your knowledge and apply the concepts. I have also tried to approach the subject in a casual way, which will hopefully make it a fun learning experience.
I have tried to keep the language to its simplest form, explaining industry words as I progress through the course. This will enable you to understand the vocabulary used in Project Management, without being confused by it.