Uncertainty – A risk or an opportunity?

Some examples of project risk areas are described below.

Stakeholders and requirements

• Important stakeholders not identified
• Stakeholders’ needs and expectations are not identified or neglected
• Requirements are not specified

Competence and skills

• The project team has insufficient competence and skills in project management
• The steering committee has insufficient competence and skills in project management
• The project team lacks necessary understanding how to manage a specific project context

Information and data

• Difficult to get access to information and data
• Poor quality of information and data
• Difficult to structure and analyse a vast amount of information and data

Project organization and collaboration

• Poor teamwork and group dynamics
• Poor collaboration between project team and project stakeholders
• Unclear roles and responsibilities in the project organization

Scope, time and resources

• Too comprehensive or vague scope
• Fixed (i.e. not flexible) project constraints concerning scope, time and cost limits
• Too scarce resources

Planning

• Too little time and effort devoted for making up and use the project plan
• Too superficial work breakdown structure, i.e. unclear scope
• Too little time and effort devoted for managing risks and opportunities