Risk Management- II - Risk Occurrence and Response

Risk Management

The Picture above depicts typical response needed for the occurrence of Risk at various project stages and impact on the Project Goal. Before getting in to the response needed, few definitions here.

Risk - An undesirable situation or circumstance that has both a likelihood of occurring and a potentially negative consequence. This is typically a likely future event based on various project variables and not yet occurred. The impact is not being experienced yet.
Risk Mitigation - Risk Mitigation plan include the techniques followed to avoid, reduce and control the probability of occurrence of the likely future event called risk. These may include changes to the requirements, actions to reduce the occurrence such as assignment of additional responsibilities etc.
Contingency Plan - A contingency plan is essentially the planned actions in the event of failure of mitigation. All efforts are put on the reduce the probability of occurrence, but the despite best efforts, the risk may occur. The contingency plan depicts, the course of action when the risk occurs. This is essentially the plan B.
Issue Management - Issue is an event or condition that has already occurred and has negligible or little impact on the objectives. The impact is negligible as there is a work around possible and the project goal can still be achieved. The issue management will depict the actions to be taken in these condition to bring normalcy to the program.