If you only know one thing about Risk Management, know this:
Schedule slack is your most powerful toolPoorly developed instincts and skills in the use of this most powerful tool are leading causes of poor risk management
If you are a Systems person --- a strategic thinker; an integrator; a "it all has to work" person -- you'll translate schedule slack into to "loose coupling"
Loose coupling is your most powerful toolThis all sounds like schedule, but the side effects are profound (slack is like a nail; it works everywhere):
- Time is lost to effect design, manufacturing, or delivery mitigation
- Pressures mount to "do something"
- Short-cuts are taken
- The thing may not work at the end (oops, that's career limiting)
- It shall be: All schedules require slack; a schedule without slack is but a hope, and is risky all the way
- At the end: Slack is always sequenced after a risky event is to occur. NEVER put the slack first, hoping it will all go away
- Don't add risk unwittingly: Unnecessary coupling (to wit: bundling) just adds risk where there was none. Decouple everything; don't purposely couple anything.
- If two independent events have a 9-in-10 chance of success, then when tightly coupled and no slack between them, success of the pair is only 8-in-10, a loss of 10 points
- It gets worse fast: a pair with 7-in-10 chance of success degrades to less than 1-in-2. A loss of 20 points. Good grief!
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