Risk Practice

Reduce Risk. Increase Confidence.

There’s a reason why we brand our workshops as “Confidence” Workshops rather than the overly used ‘risk workshop’ offering. While we adopt highly analytical risk models, what we really bring to the table is confidence. Confidence in the achievability of your project; confidence in the effectiveness of your planned mitigation strategies; certainty in meeting project time and cost objectives.

To date, we have executed literally hundreds of risk assessments around the globe on many different types of projects. If you work with a Fortune 500 company, the chances are, we’ve helped one of your projects.

Not one to rest on our laurels, while we are proud of our track record, we are continuously looking for ways to make our process easier and the results more and more accurate. Today, we bring AI and benchmarking to a more modern and effective risk assessment.

What is a Risk Assessment?

A CSRA (cost and schedule risk assessment) workshop is a collaborative event involving a project team, typically discipline leads, lead planners and engineering managers that is facilitated by a third-party facilitator.

Integrated Cost/Schedule Risk Assessment
Risk Workshop

01 Schedule

02 Cost

  • Uncertainty
  • Risk Events
  • Weather Modeling
  • Alternate Scenarios

The overarching objective of a risk workshop is to obtain true consensus on the team’s expert opinion on certainty project scope that can then be used to build a quantitative risk model.

A risk workshop is a key part of what is commonly known as a Project Risk Assessment.

We Focus on Four Key Insights:

Confidence

How certain are you that you will complete your project milestones on-time and to-budget?
  • Dates
  • |
  • Duration
  • |
  • Costs
  • |

Certainty is the most valuable insight a project can have. A project forecast is nothing unless there is associated certainty.

At PMFocus, we believe that all risk-adjusted forecasts should carry at least a 75% or higher certainty.

Risk-Adjusted Forecast

What does your risk-adjusted cost and schedule forecast really look like? How different from your non-risked plan is it?
  • P75
  • |
  • P0-P100 Range
  • |
  • Contingency
  • |

A schedule forecast should be achievable and reflective of reality and should have at least a 75% or higher certainty in being achieved. If not, it is little more than a pretty picture.

A cost estimate should have appropriate base costs, contingency and margin allowances embedded within it. A cost risk analysis objectively determines what these relative values should be in order to appropriately counteract the impact of risk.

Risk Drivers

Is it simply the aggressiveness of your forecast or external factors that are driving your risk exposure?
  • Estimate Uncertainty
  • |
  • Risk Events
  • |
  • Quantity Growth
  • |

Knowing what your cost and schedule risk exposure is only half of the picture. The other half is knowing what is causing this exposure and more importantly, what you need to do to reduce this.

At PMFocus, we believe homing in on the cause of risk is as important as reporting risk itself.

Risk Response

What is the most time/cost effective means of mitigating your exposure?
  • Mitigation
  • |
  • Alternate Scenario Modeling
  • |

One of the biggest benefits of our approach is driving projects towards a more pro-active risk reduction mentality. Understanding how effective a risk mitigation strategy is through cost/benefit analysis enables a project to make an informed decision on how best to respond to risk exposure.

Above and Beyond

Gaining insight into your risk exposure and how to reduce this, there are additional benefits to conducting a project risk assessment:

  • Team Engagement – Project teams love to work with us. We don’t confuse or try to impress with statistical risk jargon; we don’t unnecessarily expose the complexities of the underlying risk model; we don’t keep the project team locked in a conference room for days on end; we listen. We are part of your team.
  • Team Buy-in – A risk assessment is often the first time the project team as a whole get to review the schedule & cost estimate. This drives validation & buy-in.
  • 3rd Party Review – By engaging a risk expert, you avoid any bias or potential issues around risk modeling.
  • IPA Readiness – Many CAPEX projects undergo an IPA assessment. Conducting a risk workshop prior to this has proven to be hugely beneficial in preparing for your IPA review.
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