Managing Exceptions

Exceptions are events which cause deviation from plan, outside acceptable tolerances. These fall into three categories:

Risks

Risks should be identified at the project initiation and project definition stages. There should also be regular opportunities to review the list of risks and add new ones. All risks on the list must be assessed. To Assess the risk, it is necessary to answer three questions:

Is the probability high, medium or low?
- high=very likely to happen
- medium=quite likely
- low=very unlikely
Is the impact to cost, schedule or specification, high, medium or low?
- high=outside the tolerance set for the project
- medium=outside the agreed tolerance for the current phase
- low=will still be within tolerance for the current phase
What action is required
- to avoid the risk
- to reduce the impact
- to develop an exception plan

The diagram illustrates the exceptions control cycle ...

Issues and Changes

Issues are unplanned "big problems" which must be assessed
for impact and actioned in the same way as risks.

Change requests must also go through the same assessment
process as issues and risks, to determine the impact of the
change on the project. The change must be costed, and the potential
benefits quantified. The business investment / governance
process must include how changes are authorised.