FOSE 2013: Risk Management with Julie Auletta and PM Central
Hello again, all! Let me begin with a slight confession… I’m no longer at the Washington Convention Center. For such a beautiful day, I decided instead to take it outside and enjoy some sunshine while reporting live from FOSE (that, and I have free Wi-Fi from where I am).
So today was an exciting day, to say the least, but perhaps the best part was having the opportunity to see my fellow Julie, Julie Auletta, Director of the Solutions Center at Bamboo, present at the conference. Though her presentation, titled “The Importance of Managing Risk in any Project Plan,” may seem reminiscent of a webinar featured earlier this year, having the opportunity to see the presentation live in person definitely added a lively dimension to the presentation’s content.
To begin the presentation, Julie addressed the topic of “What is a risk?” and why is it important for us to be cognizant of risks when managing our projects. Julie noted that, whether or not we like it, risks are indeed all around us and it’s up to us to recognize this fact and learn how to manage our risks in order to ensure project success. One of the best ways to manage risks, she noted, is to measure and plot risks in order to identify their potential impact on a given project. From there, we can start to develop contingency plans – essentially how to react in the event that risk does present itself.
From there, Julie moved on to the “why” of risks – Why should we manage risks after all? There are plenty of reasons why risk management is something we simply, as project managers and project teams, cannot ignore. First and foremost is the health of the project; we all want our projects to be closed out on time and in budget after all. Additionally, effectively managing risks can help to minimize crises, therein preventing problems and surprises during the project’s life cycle. Lastly, and perhaps most important to stakeholders, proper risk management helps to increase a project’s profitability, as risk mitigation can become quite costly.
To conclude the presentation, Julie looked at technology and queried how technology can assist us in managing and negating risks. Specifically, she cited Bamboo’s Project Management Central (PM Central) application. Composed of a number of invaluable components that assist with risk management, as well as resource, cost, schedule, and portfolio management, PM Central can help you manage schedules, produce risk summary charts, and provide notification emails (for when task deadlines are coming up), and more. Likewise, with PM Central, all of the above can be achieved from a single, centralized workplace all on Microsoft SharePoint.
