This course offers the skills you need to be a proactive IT risk manager - one who plans for contingencies and confidently manages unexpected events that occur throughout the project life cycle.

You'll learn how to avoid unnecessary costs and schedule delays and how to keep your team members focused on critical-path activities. Through hands-on exercises, you'll identify common IT risks, threats, and opportunities and turn them into manageable possibilities. You'll learn to capitalize on opportunities that can accelerate your project. Master the building blocks of successful IT risk management: identify, qualify, quantify, prioritize, and manage.

Students pursuing a university-recognized and/or accredited certificate in Canada or continuing education units in the US must attend at least 90% of class time, participate in class exercises and section-knowledge checks, and score at least 70% on an end-of-class, multiple-choice assessment.

Note: Do not take this course if you have taken Risk Management (course 2811).

What You'll Learn

• Identify common IT project risks
• Recognize the threats and opportunities on your project
• Understand what qualifies as risk with IT projects
• Learn the difference between negative and positive IT risks
• Develop an IT risk management plan
• Plan risk response methods for IT risks
• Understand the most common IT risk sources
• Qualify and quantify IT risks
• Create risk mitigation and contingency plans
• Monitor and control project risks
• Overcome resistance from stakeholders and team members

Hands-On Exercises

• Identify risks
• Qualify risks
• Quantify risks
• Rank and prioritize risks
• Create risk response plan (contingency plan)

Who Needs to Attend

Associate project managers, project managers, IT project managers, project coordinators, project analysts, project leaders, senior project managers, team leaders, product managers, and program managers.

Prerequisites

Do not take this course if you have taken Risk Management

• Project Management Fundamentals
• IT Project Management
• Applied Project Management

Follow-On Courses

• Schedule and Cost Control
• Project Management, Leadership, and Communication

Course Outline

1. IT Risk Foundation

• Types of risk
  • Threats and opportunities
• Common IT risks
• Preliminary risk planning
• Identify risk tolerance of stakeholders
• Roles and responsibilities for risk management
• IT Risk management plan

2. Risk Identification

• Risk identification methods
• Conduct a risk workshop
• Risk assessment matrix
• Types and sources of risks
• Triggers and symptoms of risk events
• Cause and effect of risks

3. Risk Qualification

• Risk probability and impact
• Risk data precision and accuracy
• Risk ranking and prioritization

4. Risk Quantification

• Risk interviews
• Quantitative methods

5. Risk Response Planning

• Risk response strategies
• Contingency plans
• Managing risks through deference
• Determine cost of risk and needed contingency reserve
• Develop risk response plan

6. Risk Management and Control

• Change control
• Update the risk response plan
• Corrective actions
• Workarounds
• Communicating negative information

7. Case Studies

8. Exercises