Anticlue

Risk and Project Plans

Project Plans are notoriously difficult to derive. It is difficult to predict all of the activities needed and the timeline of those activities. Consequentially, some activity is missed. Maybe not missed, but the inspiration for the idea of the crutial activity is not forthcoming at the time of the project plan. (Basically we didn't think of it then, because the muse wasn't around) This type of risk is commonly referred to as "white space risk." White space risk is that some required activities won't be identified in advance, leaving gaps in the project plan. The other common risk is "integration risk." Integration risk is that all of the pieces won't come back together to get the desired end result. As a part of a project there are many simultaneous activities, and sometimes the group is too large and needs to break apart to achieve the desired result. The risk arises that after breaking apart it may be difficult to bring the project back to a central focus and fit the disparate parts together.