External Environment
The larger and more complex your project or initiative is the greater the risk that changes in the external environment may affect it. Senior managers and those responsible for institutional strategies and plans should of course be scanning the external environment routinely. The sorts of external factors that may cause risk to individual projects or prompt changes in institutional strategy are:
- A change in government
- A change in the funding model
- New legislation e.g. relating to Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Disability, Health and Safety
- A change in the market for particular subjects
- Economic recession in a country that provides a large proportion of your overseas students
- A competitor merges with another institution or changes its course portfolio
- A major system supplier goes out of business
There are of course risks that fall outside these categories specifically the risk of a major disaster. Disaster Planning falls outside the scope of this infoKit although many of the principles of risk management outlined here are essential in preparing an effective Disaster Plan. It is advisable to involve as many people as possible in the risk identification process and to have some form of external validation of the outcome. Remember if you are the project manager then your evaluation will be emotionally coloured to the same extent as anyone else's. In practical terms this means you may be inclined to 'downgrade' serious risks because you want the project to go ahead. Staff who are not directly involved in the project can often act a 'Devil's advocate' to question your assumptions.
The suggestions above can be used to help you develop a checklist for risk identification but you also need to think about what is unique about your project. The danger of generic checklists is that you go through ticking the boxes in a formulaic way and fail to do enough thinking. This project may be similar to others you have done but you need to focus on the differences - what makes this one unique? It is sometimes better to use the generic checklist to review your answers at the end of the exercise i.e. after you have thought about the project in unique terms.
