Project Risk Checklist

1.0 Resource Risk

    1.1 Organisational Risk

      – Is the Project Organisation documented and on file?

      – Is the Project Manager qualified and experienced in Project Management of this scale?

      – Have roles and responsibilities been documented?

      – Have roles and responsibilities been clearly communicated?

      – Is organisation structure appropriate for the project size and complexity?

      – Is there and obvious Team Leader?

      – Is the Quality Role identified and assigned?

      – Is the Project Sponsor identified and assigned?

      – Is there a Change Control Board?

      – Have Configurations Management functions been assigned?

      – Are there back-up strategies for key members of the project?

    1.2 Finance Risk

      – Is funding adequate and sufficient for the size of the project?

      – Has any funding been assigned to Training and Mentoring activities?

      – Are there predefined budget limitations which would result in project termination?

      – Are project costs realistic given the size, complexity and scale?

    1.3 People Risk

      – Are there enough skilled and experienced employees / vendors / contractors available for the                    project?

      – Has the project team a track record of delivering projects on time, quality and budget?

      – Do the Project Team feel as if the project is achievable given constraints in place?

      – Are prospects / customers involved in periodic reviews of the project through its development?

      – Is there sufficient contingency access to Subject Matter Experts throughout each stage of the                project?

1.4 Schedule Risk

      – Is project schedule realistic?

      – Have dependencies been fully understood, communicated and documented?

      – Has critical path been defined?

      – Have milestones and associated reviews been agreed and planned into programe schedule?

      – Has “Project Terminated” criteria been discussed, agreed and documented in relation to each key            milestone?

2.0 Business Risk

      – Establish potential risk of competitor getting to market first?

      – Evaluate jeopardy of project funding and executive support?

      – Have a financial benefit of the project relative to costs been defined, demonstrated, agreed and                documented?

      – Are there bigger issues to address in the business right now?

3.0 Technical Risk 

      – Scope risk

      – Technological Risk

4.0 Planning

      – Is project scope the same as agreed in the Project Charter?

      – Has Project Scope Statement been reviewed and Approved? 

      – Is there a Project Plan to measure progress? 

      – Does the project plan address:

        > at a minimum

           – project scope and deliverables

           – work breakdown structure

           – task dependencies

           – project schedule

           – milestone schedule

           – project budget

           – quality plan

           – issue resolution and change management

           – risk management plan

        > at an advanced level

           – critical success factors

           – resource plan – assignment and timings

        > cost benefit analysis

        > procurement plan

        > communication plan

        > configuration management plan

        > phase exit plan

        > project tracking agreement

        > project organisation

        > facilities plan

        > documentation plan

        > materials plan

        > training plan

        > back-up and recovery plan

        > contingency plan

        > go live plan

        > warranty plan

        > transition plan

      – Is plan for project resources adequate?

      – Are baseline project schedule and budget realistic?

      – Is the plan for the organisation of resources adequate?

      – Are there adequate project control systems?           

      – Is there a central storage for project documentation?

      – Are key stakeholders bought into the project plan?

      – Are potential customers involved in the planning process?

      – Was planning complete before the project was initiated?

      – Are documents subject to revision control? 

      – Have vendors signed off on project plan?

      – Has an independent oversight contractor signed off on the project plan? 

5.0 Tracking and Monitoring

      – Are the report contents, frequency and audience defined and communicated to the project team? 

      – Are the input requirements from the project team clearly documented and communicated?

      – Have reports to be produced, distributed and filed been defined? 

      – Has the format for tracking and monitoring schedules and costs been defined? 

6.0 Reviewing

      – Have meetings, purpose, context, frequency and participants been defined? 

      – What information is required for each meeting?

      – Are meetings set-up with assigned note-takers to add actions / issues? 

7.0 Issue Management

      – Is issue management process documented and defined?

      – Has this process been communicated to customers and team members?

      – Is there an easy way for anyone to raise an issue?

      – Is there a means of tracking and managing issues through to resolution?

      – Is there a means of learning from issues rasied to minimise future issues?

      – Is there an escalation process to address unresolved issues? 

8.0 Change Control

      – Is there a change control process in place?

      – Is change control process documented and available to team?

      – Has the process been discussed and shared with customer and project team?

      – Has change request process been discussed and communicated with customers and project team? 

      – Is all change to be managed through change control process?

      – How are change requests logged, managed, assessed and actioned?

9.0 Dispute Resolution

      – Has negotiation process been defined?

      – Has mediation process been defined?

      – Has arbitration process been agreed and defined?

      – Has litigation process and boundaries been defined?

10.0 Risk Management

      – Are all risks managed according to theproject’s risk management process?

      – Will the risk plan be reviewed and updated regularly and requently?

      – Will risk status be reported to management on a regular and frquent basis?

      – Are there documented contingencies for the top 5 risks?

      – Have the contingencies for the top 5 risks been discussed with the customer and project team?

11.0 Quality Assurance

      – Has the quality assurance plan been documented and filed? 

      – Are the QA functions and related roles and responsibilities clearly defined? 

      – Are completion / verification criteria defined for each task producing an output? 

      – Are there test plans, inspections, reviews defined for verifying outputs to each tasks?

      – Will QA have final sign-off on tasks successfully completed? 

      – Is there a formal system to manage submitting, logging, tracking, reoprting through the change,            test, submit, restest process?

      – Is there a process that allows QA statistics to be collated, assessed with any subsequent issues              logged and addressed?