PMIS 388: Enforcing Formal Risk Assessment Review Before Exiting Project Life Cycle Stage Gate

Regardless of the role an entity plays in delivering a capital project, formal risk assessment should be a must requirement and not a choice. The purpose of project risk management is to decrease the likelihood and minimize the potential impact of events or uncertainties, also known as threats, that could adversely impact upon the successful achievement of an entity’s project objectives. Project risk management is fundamental to project delivery and it applies to all project life cycle stages. Each project should have formal risk assessment review as one of the required deliverables to exist a project life cycle stage.

Using Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) like PMWeb organizations can enforce formal risk assessment review at each project life cycle stage gate as well as implement a detailed project risk management procedure which was detailed in an earlier article. Different PMWeb modules will be used to implement the stage gate risk assessment review starting with the stage gate module which will be used to capture the details of all deliverables needed to exit a stage including the risk assessment review. The second module will be the custom form builder where checklists will be created for risk assessment review checklist that will be specific to each project life cycle stage. Of course, the document management repository module will be also used to upload and attach supportive document for each process and the workflow module will be used to formalize the review and approval of each risk assessment review checklist.

Understanding Your Project Life Cycle Stages

Each project goes into different life cycle stages. For example, for a project owner, those could include planning, tender for design, design development, tender for construction, construction, testing and commissioning and defects liability period. Whereas for a contractor it could be business development, bid development, tender for construction, construction, testing and commissioning and defects liability period. Using PMWeb stage gate module, all those stages will be defined. This will include linking each stage gate to its relevant project schedule activity, identifying the stage gate keeper among others.

The next step is to identify the deliverables of each stage which would include in addition the risk assessment review, project budget, project schedule, list of prequalified bidders, contract documents, HSE management plan, QA/QC management plan among others. For each deliverable, PMWeb allows linking the deliverable to its relevant project schedule activity, relevant WBS level, individual responsible for the deliverable, status among others.

Risk Assessment Review Checklists

PMWeb custom form builder will be used to create the risk assessment review checklist that need to be completed for each project life cycle stage gate. The content of the checklist could vary depending on the project life cycle stage being assessed and reviewed. For each risk review item, there will be a compliance field where the reviewer will state whether the review result was compliant, not compliant or not applicable. A comments field is also added to provide any needed clarification.

To ensure the formal approval of the risk assessment review checklist, a workflow will be assigned for the checklist. The review and approval steps could vary depending on the project stage gate that the risk assessment review being done. The status field of the risk assessment review checklist will depend on the workflow status. Having a workflow as a requirement for the assessment checklist will enforce the best practices of governance and compliance.