Have You Heard of Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)?
Posted on Fri, Sep 02, 2011 @ 01:23 AM
If you deal with projects, plan them and manage them then I am almost certain that you are very familiar with Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). But do you know what a Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) is?
Risk Breakdown Structure is a tool that helps identify the risks for a project. It is a checklist that a project manager or project team can go over to ensure they reviewed all possible sources of risks and identified the risks arising out of those. Below is an example of RBS adapted from PMI’s Global Standards book on Practice Standard for Project Risk Management.
As you can see, RBS provides a checklist created from all possible sources of risks. As a project manager do you conduct risk identification meetings with stakeholders and the project teams during the planning phase? If yes, do you use RBS to help identify risks? If yes, wonderful. If not, consider giving it a try. I use it in all my projects and I can tell you from experience that without RBS, I would have missed a few risks.
Try it. See what you think. And please don’t forget to share your experience with me and other project professionals.