Goal: Control project risks - Project - Microsoft Office Online

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Goal: Control project risks

Applies to
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Microsoft Project 2000 and 2002

After a risk event occurs, you may need to respond to the risk in order to control the impact it may have on the project. The most severe risks are those that threaten to delay task (task: An activity that has a beginning and an end. Project plans are made up of tasks.), phase (phase: A group of related tasks that completes a major step in a project.), or project end dates; increase the budget (budget: The estimated cost of a project that you establish in Project with your baseline plan.); overwhelm resources (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.); or all three.

Tip This article is part of a series of articles that describe a broad set of project management activities. We call these activities "goals" because they are organized around the project management life cycle: Build a plan, track and manage a project, and close a project. The project life cycle is outlined in The Project Map, where you can find a link to an article about each project management goal. Most of the articles include links to supporting information or procedures that you perform in Project or Project Server. These "goal" articles were designed to help you not only use Project but also better understand project management.

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See all goals on the Project Map

number 1 Respond to risk events To maintain control of your project after a risk event occurs, you can respond by managing the area of your project that has been impacted.

Click all of the following that apply:

Respond to changes in scope by removing features or services that you planned.
Put tasks, phases, or the project back on schedule by adjusting the schedule (schedule: The timing and sequence of tasks within a project. A schedule consists mainly of tasks, task dependencies, durations, constraints, and time-oriented project information.) so that particular tasks, phases, or milestones (milestone: A reference point marking a major event in a project and used to monitor the project's progress. Any task with zero duration is automatically displayed as a milestone; you can also mark any other task of any duration as a milestone.) begin and end on their original start (start date: The date when a task is scheduled to begin. This date is based on the duration, calendars, and constraints of predecessor and successor tasks. A task's start date is also based on its own calendars and constraints.) and finish dates (finish date: The date that a task is scheduled to be completed. This date is based on the task's start date, duration, calendars, predecessor dates, task dependencies, and constraints.).
Keep costs within budget by adjusting individual task and resource costs (cost: The total scheduled cost for a task, resource, or assignment, or for an entire project. This is sometimes referred to as the current cost. In Project, baseline costs are usually referred to as "budget.") so that the entire project stays within budget.
Optimize the project plan for resources by adjusting resource usage (resource usage: An account of how many hours a resource is scheduled to work within a given time period, and thus an indicator of a resources allocation within that time period.) so that resources are neither overallocated (overallocation: The result of assigning more tasks to a resource than the resource can accomplish in the working time available.) nor underallocated (underallocation: Assigning a resource to work fewer hours than the resource has available.).

Number 2 Monitor the status of your risks Problems that were handled sometimes recur; few things stay fixed forever. As your project progresses, you need to routinely manage the known risks by revisiting them and tracking or changing the probability of those risks.

View and edit risks

Number 3 Watch for new risks Managing risk involves controlling your known risks, as well as watching for new risks. Revisiting old risks and watching for new ones is a cyclical activity that never stops until the project is complete.

Identify new risks