How is Risk Management Important to Project Success?

The answer to how risk management is important to project success is best illustrated by the fact that no project has ever succeeded without proper risk management. In other words, project management into which risk assessment has not gone in is as good as a doomed one.
Risk management’s importance to project success can never be overstated. Success at any project is unthinkable and unimaginable without proper and critical risk management. Risk management is a means by which the risks that accrue into a project are foreseen, assessed and mitigated, so that the project does not run into hitches at later stages, from where it would be all but impossible to rectify the same.
Understand what risk is, first
The answer to the question of how risk management is important to project success has to start with a basic understanding of risk. In the context of project management, risk, as we all know, is the occurrence of a danger or an unwanted, undesired event in a project. It succeeds or is the next stage of a hazard, which is described as the potential for or the possibility of an event to cause danger.
How risk management is important to project success is to be understood from the standpoint of the fact that absolutely every activity, not only something concerning project management, has a risk. There are risks in simple and completely mundane activities such as brushing one’s teeth or putting a baby to sleep.
Diligence and thoroughness are important elements of risk management
In order to manage a project successfully, the first step is carrying out risk management thoroughly and diligently. Risk management, if done properly, is the first and most fundamental aspect of success in a project. It is mainly about taking identifying, analyzing and mitigating risks in a business vis-à-vis its strengths and weaknesses.
It is accepted in the discipline of risk management that risks cannot be completely eliminated. However, having a sound risk management plan helps to anticipate and be prepared for risks. The ways in which this is done mainly depends on the kind of project which the organization is carrying out, and the risk manager’s ability to understand it in its fullness and implement risk mitigation strategies effectively.
Palpable benefitsRisk management’s importance to project success is illustrated by the following benefits of carrying out a Risk Analysis:

The stages of risk managementGiven the importance of risk management to project success; it is important to understand and implement risk management in its stages: Planning:This involves understanding the importance of risk management to project success by planning the risk management in terms of its size. It is generally true that the bigger the project from the operational, logistical and financial perspectives; the greater the risk, and vice versa.
Preparing: The next stage of risk management is to prepare for it. The right knowledge of the project in all its detail helps project managers to prepare for any exigency and for taking steps to mitigate its effects.
Measuring the result: Judicious and farsighted project managers measure the fallout of a risk management activity by what it fetches. If a risk management activity has accrued a certain expense that cannot be justified in the light of the benefit it brought, then such a risk management action is not effective and has not understood the importance of risk management to project success.
Evaluating the impact: A risk management plan may have been planned, prepared and executed very diligently, but risk managers ask what impact such an action had on the project, and eventually, on the organization. How many resources did it consume? How much time did it take? What kind of risk did it mitigate and what was the impact of this risk, had it been allowed to continue? These are some of the questions insightful risk managers ask. This perceptiveness is a result of their sharp understanding of how work management is important to project success.

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How Americans get their health insurance

With Obamacare firmly in the crosshairs of Republican lawmakers, the debate around U.S. healthcare is at a fever pitch.
While there is no shortage of opinions on the best route forward, the timeliness of the debate also gives us an interesting chance to dive into some of the numbers around healthcare – namely how people even get coverage in the first place.

How Americans get healthcare

The following infographic shows a breakdown of how Americans get healthcare coverage, based on information from Census Bureau’s surveys.
Put together by Axios, it shows the proportion of Americans getting coverage from employers, Medicaid, Medicare, non-group policies, and other public sources. The graphic also includes the 9% of the population that is uninsured, as well.
Axios via Visual Capitalist
The following definitions for each category above come from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit that uses the Census Bureau’s data to put together comprehensive estimates on healthcare in the country:
Employer-Based: Includes those covered by employer-sponsored coverage either through their own job or as a dependent in the same household.
Medicaid: Includes those covered by Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and those who have both Medicaid and another type of coverage, such as dual eligibles who are also covered by Medicare.
Medicare: Includes those covered by Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and those who have Medicare and another type of non-Medicaid coverage where Medicare is the primary payer. Excludes those with Medicare Part A coverage only and those covered by Medicare and Medicaid (dual eligibles).
Other Public: Includes those covered under the military or Veterans Administration.
Non-Group: Includes individuals and families that purchased or are covered as a dependent by non-group insurance.
Uninsured: Includes those without health insurance and those who have coverage under the Indian Health Service only.

Healthcare mix by state

Here’s another look at how Americans get healthcare coverage on a state-by-state basis.
This time the graphic comes from Overflow Data and it simply shows the percent of buyers in each state that receive health coverage from public sources:

http://public.tableau.com/views/Whatpercentageofthepopulationhaspublicinsuranceineachstate/Whatofthepopulationhaspublicinsuranceineachstate?:embed=y&:showVizHome=no&:host_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F&:tabs=no&:toolbar=yes&:animate_transition=yes&:display_static_image=no&:display_spinner=no&:display_overlay=yes&:display_count=yes&publish=yes:showVizHome=no&amp:toolbar=no&:loadOrderID=0

Oddly, the state that gets the highest proportion of public health coverage (New Mexico, 46.6%) is kitty-corner to the state with the lowest proportion of public health coverage (Utah, 21.3%).

Why the debate is paramount

If you ask some people what is going on with U.S. healthcare, they will tell you that things are going “sideways” – that costs are going up, but care is not improving anywhere near the same pace.
Here’s a graphic we published last year from Max Roser that puts this sentiment in perspective:
Visual Capitalist via Our World in Data
It’s fair to say that care has been going sideways in the U.S. for some time, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
So, what needs to be done to fix the problem?

Read the original article on Visual Capitalist. Get rich, visual content on business and investing for free at the Visual Capitalist website, or follow Visual Capitalist on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn for the latest. Copyright 2017. Follow Visual Capitalist on Twitter.

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The interconnectedness between human resources and project management

Although a superficial look may suggest nothing in common between HR and project management; upon scratching the surface a bit, one discovers a close relationship between the two. Project management and HR are very closely related to each other, if one considers the similarity in the approach to the two disciplines:

Project management is rooted in planning. A detailed, systematic, team-involved plan is at the core of successful project implementation. Therefore, the project leader who plans well succeeds in executing the project and taking it a notch higher. 

The ability to plan precisely is of equal importance for HR, because much of what progresses in the organization hinges on HR’s planning ability. When HR plans and implements properly and effectively, that is a sure prescription for the organization’s success and growth. Like project managers, HR is also expected to transform a vague concept into a measurable outcome by channeling a broad array of knowledge, skills, and resources toward a critical organizational goal.

A learning session on the link between HR and project management

A proper understanding of this link between HR and project planning is the learning that a two-day, in person seminar being organized by GlobalCompliancePanel, a leading provider of professional trainings for the areas of regulatory compliance, will be imparting.

The speaker at this session, Cathleen Hampton, a professional consultant with over 25 years of HR experience, will talk about strategic and effective management and implementation of programs and ways in which HR professionals can facilitate both of these in their organizations. To gain learning of the crucial link between HR and project management, just log on to

http://www.globalcompliancepanel.com/control/globalseminars/~product_id=900725.

Understanding the similarities

Over two days of learning, Cathleen will expose participants to the basic principles concerning the nuts and bolts of planning, scheduling, and budgeting. These will be the outcomes of this learning:

o   Strengthening of skills and understanding how to generate valuable benefits for the organization by achieving crucial results that align with organizational objectives

o   Knowledge of the communication skills it takes to get ideas, instructions, and requests across quickly and accurately, thereby minimizing development time

o   Effectively using resources to stay on top of deadlines and expenses

o   How to rebound quickly from surprises and setbacks

o   How to get the best from people who don't normally report to them

o   These are the objectives of this seminar:

o   Learning the imperative questions to ask before even beginning

o   How to use the planning and scheduling tools that professional project managers use, such as GANTT charts, the critical path method, work breakdown structures, project management software, and others

o   Best practices for team work

o   Understanding when and how the “Murphy factor” could hit the project and impact it in a big way.