project risk - follow the process - dammit

Risk Management, a matter of process

byEpsilica Consulting

“Project Risk – Everybody’s responsibility”

The project started so well. Everybody was behind it, the best people were leading it and the best talent was delivering it

• A saving of $2m was the goal, the calculations had been done, the projections made and true enough an amazing amount of money could be saved.

Long and hard they worked, analysing, designing and building. Lots of sweat and tears

After two long years and thousands of hours of effort the new product was unveiled. The public should have been amazed, the investors should have been thrilled and the money should have started rolling in

But it didn’t !

In fact, it was such a failure that the public started to question why so much had been invested in something that was so far removed from reality that nobody would buy it

The problem was, the product in all it’s glory was red when it should have been green. Red was no longer the in colour

Granted, two years ago when the development started, people could not get enough of Red things but now…..

It was simply the wrong colour. To make matters worse, the edges were square when they should have been rounded.

So much had been invested in a square red product that it was almost impossible to re-design it at this late stage.

So where did it all go wrong ?

The project started so well. Everybody was behind it, the best people were leading it and the best talent was delivering it

The senior management decided to order a review, heads would roll. External auditors were brought in to turn over every stone and look for any clue that would identify the culprit

Expertly they worked, checking every document and talking to every team member to find out why they had spent so much building something that was the wrong colour.

After all the hard work, the auditors found the reason for the failure. It was clearly documented and available for all to see

The sad thing was that the reason had been around for two years, in fact it was there right at the start of the project

But nobody had noticed, even though they had all seen it

Nobody had questioned it even though they had all read it

The auditors gathered their results and presented their findings to the CEO

He read the report, read it again and finally read it aloud the solution out loud....

“There is a risk that customers will no longer prefer red products, if they change their preference then there is a likelihood that the product will fail”

Where did you find this, asked the CEO in disbelief

In the product Risk Register stated the Auditors

But why did nobody highlight it as a high risk ?

Asked the CEO

They did, said the auditor’s the Risk was marked ‘RED’

But who knew about it ?asked the CEO

Everybody, stated the auditors.

It had been around so long, nobody owned it even though everybody saw it.

Your processes are in place but nobody followed them. • Your support team did not ensure

compliance,• Your business team did not ask questions• Your project team did not follow the process• Your management team did not monitor the

project

A lesson’s learned presentation from Epsilica Consulting.