Risk Management, a matter of
process
“Project Risk – Everybody’s
responsibility”
by
Epsilica Consulting

The project started so well. Everybody was
behind it, the best people were leading it and
the best talent was delivering it

• A saving of $2m was the goal, the calculations
had been done, the projections made and true
enough an amazing amount of money could be
saved.

Long and hard they worked, analysing, designing
and building. Lots of sweat and tears

After two long years and thousands of hours of
effort the new product was unveiled. The public
should have been amazed, the investors should
have been thrilled and the money should have
started rolling in

But it didn’t !

In fact, it was such a failure that the public
started to question why so much had been
invested in something that was so far removed
from reality that nobody would buy it

The problem was, the product in all it’s glory
was red when it should have been green. Red
was no longer the in colour

Granted, two years ago when the development
started, people could not get enough of Red
things but now…..

It was simply the wrong colour. To make matters
worse, the edges were square when they should
have been rounded.

So much had been invested in a square red
product that it was almost impossible to re-
design it at this late stage.

So where did it all go wrong ?

The project started so well. Everybody was
behind it, the best people were leading it and
the best talent was delivering it

The senior management decided to order a
review, heads would roll. External auditors
were brought in to turn over every stone and
look for any clue that would identify the culprit

Expertly they worked, checking every document
and talking to every team member to find out
why they had spent so much building something
that was the wrong colour.

After all the hard work, the auditors found the
reason for the failure. It was clearly
documented and available for all to see

The sad thing was that the reason had been
around for two years, in fact it was there right
at the start of the project

But nobody had noticed, even though they had
all seen it

Nobody had questioned it even though they
had all read it

The auditors gathered their results and
presented their findings to the CEO

He read the report, read it again and finally read
it aloud the solution out loud....

“There is a risk that customers will no longer
prefer red products, if they change their
preference then there is a likelihood that the
product will fail”

Where did you find this, asked the CEO in
disbelief

In the product Risk Register stated the Auditors

But why did nobody highlight it as a high risk ?
Asked the CEO

They did, said the auditor’s the Risk was marked
‘RED’

But who knew about it ?
asked the CEO

Everybody, stated the auditors.
It had been around so long, nobody owned it
even though everybody saw it.

Your processes are in place but nobody followed
them.
• Your support team did not ensure
compliance,
• Your business team did not ask questions
• Your project team did not follow the process
• Your management team did not monitor the
project

A lesson’s learned presentation from Epsilica
Consulting.