Tracking Risks: Risk Monitoring and Risk Control

According to the PMBOK, "Good risk monitoring and control processes provide information that assists with making effective decisions in advance of the event occurring."

It is important to know that a project is the most at risk, and most likely to change, at the beginning of the project.

In our description of risk monitoring, pay special attention to the words in advance of the event occurring because preventative measures help create the least project variance. If a project runs smoothly and has been estimated correctly, schedule and cost variances will be minimal.

Risks are where the unexpected changes will most likely come in a project. PMI heavily recommends actively identifying and tracking risks so that when a risk occurs, the mitigation strategy identified can be implemented.

Do understand that risks happen. Understanding risk control according to PMBOK is relatively simple:

"Identify risks early, monitor them often, and manage them when they occur. Risk management may require replanning, developing alternate strategies, and re-baselining the project, depending on the severity of the risk."

In practice, however, risks are sometimes tricky to identify. Management is often reluctant to consider risks outside the company environment.

A risk trigger is an event that causes a risk to occur. For example, an employee leaving the company is a trigger for a staffing risk.