Is your risk management toolset efficient or wasteful?
Once an assessment of the efficiency of your risk process has been made (see the insight “Is your risk management process efficient or wasteful?”) the second element is to consider whether your risk toolset is efficient or wasteful. There are two aspects to consider – Inputs and Outputs. Inputs are straightforward.
Risk management should be undertaken by those undertaking the project. The reason for this is so there is “one source of truth”. This ensures data integrity. Additionally, data entry needs to be through one screen. This makes workshops and updating data as efficient as possible. Tabbing across spreadsheets columns or various tabs as occurs with some software takes time (it may be small – but it all adds up in lost time and the inefficiency can be irritating). It also detracts from workshop participants being able to focus on the data.
The second role of a toolset is to enable efficient communication (the outputs – reports). This depends totally on the recipient’s requirements and their management role. Line managers (eg commercial, technical), programme/portfolio, or business unit etc will all have a different focus. Data needs to be easily cut and diced so that the required specific information can be quickly accessed (eg High commercial risks across a programme). Report users also require to be able to access information anywhere and at any time. Additionally projects often have external parties assisting (consultants/contractors) so specific project data needs to be accessible to those outside the organisation.
This all points to a cloud hosted database and of course means there will be a cost. However, this will easily be offset by the time saved by managers in accessing data and also enabling them to be more effective in their role (eg by being able to make decisions earlier based on current and detailed information).
However, don’t take my word for it! Here is a sheet so you can make an assessment of your time/cost savings:
https://www.risktools.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Value-of-integration-checklist.pdf.
The first page is for project managers and overleaf for any manger. Let me know how you go. Is there anything missing?
