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.