The Panama Canal (Mini-Case Study: 4.1)



Q. Select and apply the risk identification tools introduced in section 4.5 that would have helped to identify the risks mentioned above.   

Not identifying a potential risk facing a project means a project will be at risk of not completing on schedule and within the expected budget and intended quality. Moreover, the main difficulty a project manager might face is not having a base or a reference list that he can refer to when identifying risk. Hence, risk identification is an important process in the Risk Management Planning. Because the risk identification process determines the major risks that might affect the project and outline their characteristics. So, to avoid any surprises that might occur in an international project like this, it is recommended to include these tools to identify risks in advance:
1- Risk Brainstorming: even if the organization has prior experience dealing with international projects, it is recommended to brainstorm gaps in knowledge, and identify more information preventing the project to operate in an uncertain environment.
2- Risk Breakdown Structure: International project managers should be able to manage risks more effectively when using a Risk Breakdown Structure approach. RBS is the hierarchical presentation of risks, that starts from the higher levels of risks and goes down to finer levels. Hence, the more you subdivide risks into deeper levels of the project the more control you get with project implementation.