Team:Groningen/Project Plan/Risk List

From 2009.igem.org

Introduction

Every project has to deal with risks. To ensure a smoothly running project without too many large hiccups it is important to identify these risks and develop strategies to avoid them (and/or reduce their impact).

The table below, shows the possible risks that may influence the success of the iGEM project. It gives an outline of 5 main risks, namely problems which emerge from finances, time span, lab work, modeling and members / instructors. Possible risks were traced from the problems of iGEM Groningen 2008 and of the iGEM 2008 teams which were withdrawn from the competition.

Also see [http://www.upedu.org/upedu/process/artifact/ar_rskls.htm UPEDU's description of the Risk List] artifact and the enclosing artifact, our project plan.

Risks

For each risk the following is documented:

• Identifier: a descriptive (short) name
• Magnitude: ranking from 1-10, 1 is low risk and 10 is a high risk. Taking in account: how probable and severe the problem is.
• Description: a brief description of the risk.
• Impact:
  • C = critical, there is a real problem but when it is noticed in an early stage it can probably be solved, all the project members are affected.
  • H = high impact, the probability of the projects success is seriously affected. There is an immediate need for a meeting with the stakeholders.
  • M= medium impact, there is a real problem but when it is noticed in an early stage it can be solved, not all members are affected.
  • L= low impact, if this risk can not be avoided, probably the team will decide to live with it.
• Indicators: when do we know this risk has materialized (or better yet, is about to materialize).
• Mitigation Strategy: how are we reducing the impact of this risk?
• Contingency Plan: what can we do if this risk does materialize?

[NEW! The first risk table (might need revising ;)]