In any industry where a project has any level of complexity, there will be risk. Assessing and managing that risk is key to ensuring the project is delivered to scope, on time, and to budget. This lite paper takes a high-level approach to the three main factors that make up risk: Likelihood (percent chance) of an adverse event happening, impact (cost) of that event, and frequency of that event over a given period. Our job is to minimize all of these factors to an acceptable level as we consider the risk equation which is: Risk = Likelihood X Impact X Frequency.

Reducing the Likelihood of an Adverse Event An adverse event could be considered any event that is negative and unexpected. However, if we consider the risk equation, we see that each factor directly impacts each other factor which means that we can discount adverse events which have a close to zero likelihood of happening.

So, how do we reduce the likelihood of an adverse event that is likely to happen? In two ways:

1. Build systems to mitigate these events from happening

2. Comply with the systems already built

Our experience tells us that the biggest challenge is often sticking to the plan. Deviating from an agreed plan usually doesn’t happen in the ‘early days’ of a project, but happens over time as field staff believe that a particular adverse event is now ‘managed.’ The reality is that this is the point where the likelihood of that adverse event starts to climb.

Making it simple to prove compliance with such a system is key. NoteVault Notes! allows field staff to capture over 100 words and several photos in 60 seconds or less, giving a powerful utility to prove compliance with even a complex risk mitigation initiative.

Reducing the Impact of an Adverse Event Reducing impact of an adverse event boils down to three things:

1. Managing components that contribute to an adverse event

2. Having plans to execute if the event happens

3. Possessing the speed to implement such plans during an adverse event

Managing Risk and The Risk Equation

LITE PAPER

By Jeremy Foster, Chief Marketing Officer for NoteVault

About the author Jeremy Foster is the Chief Marketing Officer and was an advisor to NoteVault for several years before joining full time in 2015. With 18 years of experience in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) across several continents, Jeremy joined NoteVault from Ericsson where he lead group level initiatives in Sweden. Prior to moving to Sweden, Jeremy lead Marketing and GIR (Government and Industry Relations) across 23 countries in the Middle East and North East Africa.

Source: NoteVault

For the first component, this is all about ease of escalation. Again, by making it easy to capture 100 words and several photos in less than 60 seconds, NoteVault Notes! is a powerful field tool. Because any text (spoken or typed) can trigger a notification to a stakeholder, escalations can happen without a person realizing that they are escalating (by tracking ‘hazard’ or ‘unsafe’ for example). Letting everyone know who needs to know, that an adverse event has happened is the key to speed of action. NoteVaults’s AlertMe!tm feature is designed with exactly this in mind. As soon as an audio note is

posted to an AlertMe! project, the NoteVault platform calls all stakeholders to play that note and also follows up with a text to the stakeholders with relevant information. This makes getting 10 people on the same page a one-call activity.

Reducing the Frequency of Adverse Events Although not all adverse events can be avoided, those that are prone to human error can be greatly reduced through analysis and understanding.

Recognizing that a supplier is regularly late even though they are delivering to different sites needs to be easily seen at a project office where action can be taken before a critical path is impacted. Noticing that a change order has been made without proper documentation is also key to managing scope and project budget.

Summary Although this lite paper is hardly exhaustive, we can see that managing the three components of risk individually is the key to managing risk overall.

Reducing the possibility of an adverse event is largely about compliance with a prevention plan.

Reducing impact is largely about having a mitigation plan and executing it swiftly and effectively.

Reducing the frequency of adverse events is largely about understanding the bigger picture of what might be building up to such an event.

Good luck with your risk management efforts!

Stay safe.