Integrating Risk Management Into Engineering Processes

Risk Management Made Simple: A Straightforward Approach for Every Project Manager Risk management is crucial to project success, yet it's often seen as complex and intimidating. Here’s a simple approach to managing risks in your projects: 1/ Identify Risks Early: → Start with a risk brainstorm: technical, operational, financial, and external risks. → Collaborate with your team to identify potential threats and opportunities. → Involve diverse team members to gain different perspectives on possible risks. → Use historical data and past project experiences to spot risks that may arise again. 2/ Assess and Prioritize: → Use a risk matrix to assess impact and likelihood. → Prioritize high-impact risks that could derail your project’s success. → Make sure you reassess risks periodically to capture any changes in impact or probability. → Don’t forget to consider opportunities as well—these should be prioritized, too! 3/ Develop Mitigation Plans: → For each priority risk, develop a strategy to minimize or avoid it. → Plan for contingencies to stay prepared for the unexpected. → Ensure the mitigation plans are realistic and actionable. → Set up early-warning systems so you can act quickly if needed. 4/ Assign Ownership: → Assign a team member to own each risk, ensuring accountability. → Ensure they track progress and adjust strategies as necessary. → Empower the risk owner with resources and authority to implement mitigation plans. → Ensure a straightforward escalation process if the risk owner needs help. 5/ Monitor and Update Regularly: → Schedule regular risk reviews and status updates. → Keep an eye on emerging risks and adjust plans as your project evolves. → Maintain an open feedback loop with stakeholders on the evolving risk landscape. → Use project management tools to automate risk tracking and reminders. 6/ Communicate Effectively: → Keep stakeholders informed about risk status and changes. → Be transparent about potential impacts and solutions. → Ensure communication is clear and consistent across all levels of the team. → Adjust your communication style based on your stakeholders' needs and preferences. Managing risk doesn’t have to be complicated. Focus on 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴, and 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆; you'll set your project up for success. What’s one risk management tip you live by? Let’s share some wisdom!

If you're in the business of leading projects, then at least 10% of your time should be spent on identifying and planning around risks. At least, this is what I was taught in my first PMI project management course years ago. And while reasonable people can disagree on the specific amount of time needed, the point is solid - one of the major roles anyone in production or program management type roles is assigned to take on is risk assessment and mitigation. Unfortunately, for a lot of producers in the game industry, this isn't something they were formally trained on, particularly if you came into the role from another discipline in games (such as QA or Design) or if your only formal training came from a two day Scrum course. I saw the subject come up in the Building Better Games Q&A call and I was actually excited when Aaron Smith brought up the same techniques I was trained on years ago and have adopted (and adapted) ever since. It's the way I teach my own teams and while it requires dilligence and consistency, it's not hard to pick up (it's easier than the rules for the board game "Risk"). 1 - Identify risks On a regular basis, you should be asking your team what are the risks they see. Every time a decision needs to be made, a story is written, or a feature is spec'd, you should think about what could go wrong. Those are your risks. 2 - Document Keep the risks written down in a doc everyone has access to (Gdocs, Confluence, etc). The way I prefer (and what I saw Aaron advocating) is a spreadsheet. Each risk gets a line item and a category (if the risk happens, what would be impacted - costs? security? people? players?). 3 - Impact You should also track the potential impact - how bad is this risk if it happens? Is it a trivial risk or a catastrophic one? Would it involve some work to reboot a service or would it potentially take down your entire data center? Assign these risks a score. I prefer 1 to 5, Trivial to Catastrophic. 4 - Probability You should score out how likely each risk is to occur. Is it highly unlikely or nearly certain? Score these out also on the same scale, typically 1 to 5. 5 - Prioritize Multiply the Impact and Probability to come up with your score, somewhere between 1 (something trivial that is highly unlikely) to 25 (a nearly certain, catastrophic event) and then sort or at least color range your spreadsheet accordingly to show your risks in a way that prioritizes your attention. 6 - Action Plans The last column I make sure to include is what type of plan is in place to address the risk. Something with a minor impact may be something we just accept where something more serious may require a full mitigation plan. The value here is that you've documented these risks and can communicate them out (as well as what needs doing). You're addressing risks before they become real problems in this way. #production #risks #gamedev #bettergames

Transforming Risk Management from Process to Culture In twenty years of transformation work, I've noticed a pattern: organizations invest millions in sophisticated risk frameworks while underinvesting in what determines their success—the human element. Risk management has a behavior problem, not a framework problem. 🤫 When Risk Management Fails Silently We've all seen it: - Risk policies nobody reads - Training with high completion but low application - Risk registers maintained but rarely consulted - Near-misses that don't trigger process reviews In 2012, a major financial institution learned this lesson the hard way when $6B in losses occurred despite "best practice" risk controls. Post-incident reviews revealed employees had developed workarounds for controls they viewed as obstacles rather than safeguards. 🔗 The Missing OCM Link Risk management isn't just a technical implementation—it's a profound cultural transformation that requires: 1. Understanding current risk culture: The informal norms that actually govern behavior 2. Addressing emotional responses: Where raising risks is seen as negativity 3. Translating abstract risks to daily work: Helping people see how risks manifest in their role 4. Activating influence networks: Engaging those who shape opinions about "how things work" ➡️ From Process to Culture: The OCM Approach Effective risk culture transformation applies change principles specifically to risk behavior: - Risk storytelling: Creating compelling narratives about both risk successes and failures that emotionally resonate - Decision point mapping: Identifying the everyday moments where risk choices happen and focusing change efforts there - Psychologically safe feedback loops: Building systems where near-misses and concerns can be reported without blame - Visible leadership modeling: Ensuring executives demonstrate risk-aware decision making even when inconvenient One auto manufacturing organization reduced safety incidents in plants by 60% by implementing a system and cultural shift that empowered any worker to stop production if they saw a quality or safety issue. 📊 Measuring Culture, Not Just Controls The most sophisticated organizations are now tracking: - Risk reporting at different organizational levels - Psychological safety scores in risk discussions - Time spent on risk analysis in decision processes - How often the organization says "no" to opportunities due to risk concerns The most powerful risk management framework isn't the one in your documentation—it's the one embedded in your culture. How is your organization approaching risk culture? Are you focusing on frameworks or on the human behaviors that determine whether those frameworks actually work? #RiskManagement #OrganizationalChange #CultureTransformation #ChangeManagement #OCM #RiskFramework