Leading Practices and Advanced Tools in Risk Management: A Practitioner’s Guide with Dr. Prasad S. Kodukula
What You Will Learn
Upon completion of this training, learners will be able to:
- Identify, analyze, and plan for the four key types of risks that impact cost and schedule of every project.
- Apply an integrated framework including threats and opportunities associated with both cost and schedule.
- Generate more realistic project cost, schedule, and reserve estimates by accounting for both threats and opportunities.
Description
Risk is inherent to projects. Ignoring it will result in unrealistic estimates of schedule and cost. The likely consequences are poor investment decisions, schedule delays, cost overruns, and ultimate project failures. Considered a four-letter dirty word, risk was virtually ignored in managing projects by many organizations until recently. However, today risk management is front and center of project management. The commonly used first generation (1G) risk management methods involve risk registers and qualitative analysis. The 2G methods, which are not as common yet, are based on quantitative analysis.
The focus of this training is on next-generation tools and leading practices that represent 3G risk management. Whereas the current risk management body of knowledge mostly deals with schedule, cost, and risk separately, this training offers a practical integrated approach based on quantitative and stochastic methods. By applying this approach, you’ll be able to obtain more realistic project estimates (cost, schedule, and reserves), navigate more easily through risks and uncertainty, and gain more management buy-in and support. Designed to serve as a practical guide, this training will show you how to apply the 3G tools in a step-by-step fashion by means of a case study. The learning is enhanced through hands-on exercises coupled with interactive discussions and role-plays.
AGENDA
Day One
- Unit 1: Introduction
- Introduce participants and instructor
- Present training overview and objectives
- Review ground rules
- Introduce the case study: Project Zulu
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 1: Project Baselines
- Unit 2: Risk Management Basics
- Define risk and uncertainty and discuss why they matter and how they’re measured
- Identify four key types of risks and present examples
- Review the commonly used approach to risk management
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 2: Risk Identification
- Describe four types of risk analysis models
- Elucidate evolution of risk management from 0G through 3G
- Illustrate why you must include both threats and opportunities in estimating schedule and cost risks
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 3: Risk Prioritization
- Unit 3: Estimation
- Define, differentiate, and discuss pros and cons of deterministic vs. stochastic estimation
- Describe three-point estimation methods and discuss when they are most appropriate
- Review five most important probability distributions needed in stochastic analysis of uncertainty and risk
- Explain Monte Carlo methods in simple and easy terms
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 4: Three Point Estimation
- Unit 4: Project Cost Risk
- Apply Monte Carlo simulation to analyze the impact of different risk types (including both threats and opportunities) on project cost
- Compare deterministic vs. stochastic estimation of project costs with and without risks
- Define tornado diagrams and correlation coefficients
- Rank the identified risks based on their impact on project cost
- Gain insight into the impact of risks by performing what-if analysis
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 5: Cost Risk Analysis
Day Two
- Unit 5: Project Schedule Risk
- Apply Monte Carlo simulation to analyze the impact of different risk types (including both threats and opportunities) on project schedule
- Compare deterministic vs. stochastic estimation of project schedules with and without risks
- Illustrate probability Gantt charts
- Define critical indexes and schedule impact indicators
- Gain insight into the impact of risks by performing what-if analysis
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 6: Schedule Risk Analysis
- Unit 6: Integration of Schedule and Cost Risks
- Explain why integration of cost and schedule risks offers a more realistic estimation of project cost as opposed to analyzing cost risk without any consideration for schedule changes
- Prioritization of risks by addition or exclusion of the impact of one risk at a time
- Introduce a novel technique called RISA (Risk Impact Sensitivity Analysis) and elucidate its power in identifying the most impactful risks for developing response action
- Prepare a combined risk register that includes opportunities and threats related to both schedule and cost
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 7: Schedule & Cost Risk Integration
- Unit 7: Risk Response Development
- Define “risk debt” and explain the good, the bad, and the ugly story of risk debt
- Expound why variability risk is virtually guaranteed in every project and what to do about it
- Discuss three common ambiguity risks most organizations face and how adaptive/agile methods can be applied to manage them
- Delineate five key steps to building a resilient organization to manage unknown unknowns
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 8: Risk Response Actions
- Illustrate why three levels of reserves are needed
- Project Zulu Case Study Exercise 9: Reserves Estimation
- Unit 8: Conclusion
- Tie it all together
- Summarize key takeaways
- Share how you’ll apply what you’ve learned
- Stay in touch!
PDU Allocation Table
| Ways of Working | Power Skills | Business Acumen | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAPM® / PMP® / PgMP® | 10 | 0 | 4 | 14.00 |
| PMI-ACP® / Agile* | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5.00 |
| PMI-SP® | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4.00 |
| PMI-RMP® | 9 | 0 | 4 | 13.00 |
| PfMP® | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4.00 |
| PMI-PBA® | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4.00 |
 |  |  |  |
Instructor(s)
Prasad S. Kodukula DASM, DASSM, PMP, PgMP, PMI Fellow
Dr. Prasad S. Kodukula is a multiple award-winning speaker, coach, author, thought leader, inventor, and entrepreneur with 35+ years of professional experience. He is founder/CEO of Kodukula & Associates, Inc., a project management training, coaching, and consulting company in Chicago, Illinois. A self-proclaimed global ambassador of project management, Prasad has lectured in nearly 50 countries on a variety of topics in project management. He is a highly recognized speaker in PMI circles, having presented at global conferences and various events held by numerous chapters.
Several years ago, he presented two trainings, How to Select the Right Projects and Project Portfolio Management: A Practitioner's Approach for PMI Training and was consistently rated as one of the best among his peers. He was recognized three times by PMI as “Best of the Best in Project Management” with the 2020 Fellow Award, the 2016 Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence Award, and the 2010 Distinguished Contribution Award. He also received prestigious awards from the USEPA and the states of Kansas and Illinois for outstanding achievements in education, training, and technology innovation.
He has trained or coached several thousand project/program/portfolio managers at more than 40 Fortune 100 companies and in every single S&P sector. Examples of major companies where he taught include Abbott Labs, Boeing, BP, Chrysler, Cisco, Corning, Dow Chemical, Ericsson, ExxonMobil, IBM, J.P. Morgan Chase, Medtronic, Motorola, Sprint, Volkswagen, and United Technologies. Prasad taught management classes for the World Bank, the United Nations, and several U.S. government agencies. He teaches project management at the University of Chicago.
Prasad is the co-founder/CEO of NeoChloris Inc., a clean energy company. He is a co-author or contributing author of ten books and nearly 50 technical articles. His books on portfolio management and real options are used in graduate business schools in several countries. He also holds four patents.