3.4 Risk/Issue/Change/Crisis Management

Summary: Examines the proactive identification, analysis, and management of risks, issues, changes, and crises that may impact project outcomes, emphasizing the importance of resilience and adaptability in maintaining project progress.

Learning Objectives:

1. Develop skills in identifying, analyzing, and managing risks, issues, changes, and crises that may impact project delivery and outcomes.
2. Learn strategies for proactive risk mitigation and effective crisis management to minimize disruptions and maintain project progress.

It is impossible for anyone to foresee the future event completely correct. What you can do best is to analyze the events, activities, environment under certain assumptions. Some grant programmes ask you to state this assumptions and risks at the proposal phase. Some general assumption examples are stated below:

• Economic environment will be stable for procurement of goods and services that will be used in the Project.
• There will not be any bureaucratic and/or regulative change affecting the Project activities.
• Key personnels defined in the proposal will be available during the Project.
• Project partners will be able to continue their activities during the Project.

You can also include more specific assumptions related with your Project and activities. Since your Project proposal will be an integral part of the contract that you will sign with the Grant Provider / Agency, it is important to leave an open door to risks. In case of your assumptions are violated due to external causes (or force majeure), your Project activities may be at risk in terms of quality and/or quantity. In that case, you need to contact with your Grant provider / Agency and ask for a way out. In that case, you can state that one or more of your assumptions are failed and there can be reduction quality and/or quality of your outputs and activities.

Even though some risks cannot be foreseen, some can be dealt with throughout the Project processes. In order to deal with these risks, a risk, issue or change process should be defined. You can define certain categories to group risks, issues or changes. It can be easier to manage these categories if you delegate responsibilities in line with the significance level. So, if an issue can be resolved at local level, you or your partner tackle with the issue and inform consortium about it. If this issue cannot be resolved solely by one partner, consortium would be informed and tries to find a way out. If, It cannot be resolved by this level either, you can contact with the Grant provider / Agency to ask guidance and an escalation path.