pmo365 centralises your RAID Logs

RAID logs have different category configurations which can be adapted and altered depending on how best they suit an organisation’s activities. These categories include:

Risks are potential problems that may occur as the project progresses. Risks can impact pretty much anything - from people to processes and technologies. Though risks are typically associated with having an adverse impact on a project, in rare cases there can also be positive risks. It is important to differentiate risks from issues. Risks are potential problems while issues are present problems.

Below are screenshots of how your organisation can capture, manage and have visibility and control over all your projects portfolios risks in one place in pmo365:

Issues are problems that are present, currently identifiable and can or must be immediately addressed. Issues, when left unaddressed, can often escalate and potential derail a whole project or program.

Below are screenshots of how your organisation can capture, manage and have visibility and control over all your projects portfolios issues in one place in pmo365:

Dependencies are interdependent tasks that are critical to a project’s progression. There are several types of dependencies that must be identified to ensure they are addressed according. Dependencies can become issues if the tasks they are dependent upon are not completed leading to delays in overall project completion.

As much as we would like to hope every single action in a project is supported by empirical proof, most of the time that is not the case - whether that be due to data and experience limitations. However, this problem can be mitigated by first identifying all the current assumptions of the project and continually updating this list as the project progresses and more information is made available.

For some configurations of RAID logs, the Assumptions is replaced with Action.

Actions are activities that are aimed at mitigating a risk or resolving an issue. In most cases, actions are assigned owners who are then responsible for other more detailed activities that need to be done to address the risk.

In some configurations of RAID Logs, Dependencies can either be replaced or used alongside with Decisions.

The decisions category is used to list down the decisions that need to be made during the process of the project. This category aims to give a clear understanding of the thought process behind the project’s actions by defining decision ownership, accountability, justification, duration and execution.

The first step is to select which categories you want to apply depending on your project’s contexts and needs. Don’t feel a need to have to apply all of them if unnecessary as you will end up with an overload or irrelevant information that takes up precious time and resources.

Once you have the categories defined, it's as easy as simply plotting everything down in a table or excel sheet like what has been done down below.

However, when you have hundreds of projects running, having people fill, input and edit endless excel sheets is not sustainable. At pmo365 we not only can give more in-depth information, we can make it all centralised with real-time data so you don’t have to work any harder to get even more valuable information. The added dimensions we introduce stem from risk management approaches and they help you identify the type of risk, attribute a risk rating and better implement risk response strategies. We’ll go into more detail below.

The three main risk management approaches that make for better RAID Logs are risk management’s risk types, risk rating (through a risk matrix) and risk response

Risks can be categorised as two types: inherent risk and residual risk. These can be visualised in the form of a funnel.

Understanding the origin and characteristic of a risk will help give inform the level of impact it has over the project in the form of risk ratings

Risk ratings assess identified risks by classifying their impact on the business from low, medium to high risk. In some situations they are also given a numerical value usually ranging from level 1 (being low risk) to level 5 risk (high risk) and needs immediate action.

Risk ratings are often visualised in the form of risk matrix’s like the one shown below.

Risk ratings are a critical team which allows managers and key decision makers to effectively prioritise the risks and issues within their programmes and projects so resources can be allocated as effectively as possible.

With risks being more often negative than not, these are 5 of the most common risk response strategies.

Identify the Benefits

When managers and stakeholders have these frames of understanding risk responses, justification for decisions made can be clearer and solutions can be more easily structured.

The biggest limitation for RAID Logs often lies in the softwares they are built on. As previously mentioned, if an organisation does not have the proper systems and connectors, integrating all this information and automating its processes become increasingly difficult. Scale this up to hundreds of projects and it’s simply unmanageable and unsustainable.

This is where pmo365 comes to the rescue and is able to integrate all your data across different platforms in a centralised form so you don’t end up wasting valuable resources on menial activities like logging.

If you want to learn more about how pmo365 can streamline your organisation’s project management through RAID logs, book a free 30 minute PPM audit to speak directly with our PPM experts.