Starting a project without considering risks is, well, a big risk to take. Prevent major issues from occurring in your project with a risk management plan template. Learn how to create a risk management plan template in Asana.
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Before you start a project, it’s important to take into account any potential issues and risks that can prevent your project from progressing smoothly.
Using a risk management plan template can help you mitigate risk and establish a contingency plan so you can successfully hit your goals without a hitch. Here’s how to do it.
A risk management plan template is a tool to help project managers prevent and measure potential risks. While the content of the template may change from project to project, the main structure of the template will not change. Using a template to manage the risk management process can help expedite future projects and align your team members so they know what to expect in the event that a risk occurs.
Creating a risk management plan template also makes it easier to manage projects with multiple stakeholders. When everyone is familiar with your established template, there’s less of a learning curve each time you start a new project.
A risk management plan is a strategy that project managers use to help prevent risks from happening throughout a project timeline. They can use this tool to monitor and log risks, as well as create a set plan of action in the event that a potential risk occurs.
Creating a risk management plan template is a best practice for project management professionals, and for good reason. Here’s why you should create a project risk management plan template before starting a large project.
With a risk management plan template, you can proactively ensure that problems that could occur already have a solution before they ever happen. By assigning a specific risk to a team member, you’re specifying the person responsible for actively monitoring each potential risk.
For some teams, developing mitigation strategies for high-impact projects is necessary before a project is even approved. This prevents high-risk projects from affecting major business operations. If your team doesn’t have mitigation plans in place, your project may not make it past the approval stage.
A risk management plan template gives your team clarity, especially when it comes to contingency plans. Stakeholders often don’t enjoy hearing that something could go wrong with a project schedule, but if you and your team already have response strategies in place, it’s much easier to quell that anxiety. Collaborative work management software like Asana allows everyone on your team to access important risk management documentation, such as a risk log, a risk assessment matrix, or other project documents.
It’s not easy to own up to an issue when things go wrong. But when there’s an assigned risk owner, that individual is responsible for mitigating that risk as much as possible if it occurs. This allows team members to evaluate the negative impact of a potential risk and develop contingency plans if or when issues arise. Individual team members have the agency to find the right solution. And if any key stakeholders have questions regarding that specific risk, they know exactly which team member to ask.
Creating a risk management plan template is easy, but the way you manage information within the plan can vary from team to team. So how should you organize the information in your risk management plan template?
One of the easiest ways to do this is by importance—for example, by ranking risks according to their potential impact on your project. Or, you could organize your risk management plan template by the likelihood of each risk happening.
No matter how you organize your risk management plan template, it’s important to utilize a tool that is customizable and collaborative. That way, your team can organize your risk management plan template in a way that makes the most sense for your team.
A risk management plan template is a helpful collaboration tool. If you’re looking for a way to connect your project team members and your key stakeholders, a risk management plan template can help your team get on the same page by compiling all work in one central place.
A risk management plan template is most commonly used to help mitigate potential risks. Use your risk management plan template during the project planning phase. Brainstorm potential risks with your team and log them into your already existing template. Remember to include the likelihood of the risk happening, a description of the risk, and a team member who is responsible for that specific risk should it occur.
Use a risk management plan template to help mitigate risks as your team moves through the project lifecycle. You can use a risk management plan template to help align project managers and team members to establish a tentative plan if a risk happens. You can also use it to help establish set processes for future projects. This can help expedite the risk management process and give your team some guidelines to work with.
Your risk management plan template should live in a project management platform that your entire team has access to. By tracking this information in a central source of truth, you can track all potential risks, the impact of those risks, and who is responsible for monitoring and reacting to the risk if it occurs. Your risk management plan template should include descriptions of potential risks, the level of impact a risk would have on a project, the likelihood of that risk occurring, and a dedicated individual to monitor that specific risk.
A risk management plan template can help your team proactively prevent risks, provide your team clarity on contingency plans, and encourage accountability with team members. Creating a risk management plan template can help standardize processes across the organization, further preventing more risk.