Issues vs. Risks: What's The Difference?

I often hear the words 'issues' and 'risks' used interchangeably in project management. They aren't the same, and here is why.

If you have an active small burning fire, that issue must be resolved immediately. What do you do? You grab the nearest fire extinguisher.

Suppose you left a skillet with grease on the stove and forgot to turn the stove off. The potential risk is a fire, even though the fire hasn't started yet. What do you do to prevent a fire? Turn off the stove.

Issues in project management are current active problems or challenges that need to be solved before continuing. Risks are potential dangers or threats that can be prevented if you are aware and react fast and smartly.

Risks can be tricky because you have to be aware of patterns, impacts, and behaviors to spot them.

How to Spot Potential Risks

Spotting potential risks isn't necessarily a skill; it is more of understanding the overall project deliverables' impact on the business, customers, and team.

Risks can impact the project timeline, the customers, product stability, sales, and user experience.

Issues in one area can cause risks in another area of the business.

Let's talk about an example.

Sales and marketing plan to announce and promote the product's release and sales projected potential revenue growth from the new product. They've already invested money towards promotional planning.

You're in month two of a 6-month product release project, and you realize the schedule is underestimated and missing a good chunk of workflow and processes.

You revised the project schedule and plan and realized another two months are needed to complete the work, so we are looking at eight months until product release.

Your work as a project manager doesn't stop here. You now have to communicate this to the sales and marketing teams. Sales and other leadership teams often use projections from (future) product or feature releases to help predict year-end sales, staff, and org planning.?

An issue with the project plan caused potential risks elsewhere in the business.

How to Avoid or Reduce Risks

Let's be realistic; you will NOT avoid 100% of risks 100% of the time. Issues and risks in projects are bound to happen at any given time. However, you can attempt to prevent, manage and reduce the number of risks by following some standard practices.

Improper project planning and preparation is the number one cause of issues and risks.

Improper project planning and preparation is the number one cause of issues and risks. Detailed project planning before a project starts and communication is vital. A staffing matrix, workflows, and list of key stakeholders in your project plan will help identify and assess impact because you will have a holistic viewpoint.

I like to think of project teams as an assembly line because the outcomes impact everyone in the business.

What do you think? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments below.

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