CWDS Risk & Issue Management Plan
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Purpose: The purpose of this Risk and Issue Management Plan is to identify, manage, and minimize negative impacts to the Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Project by:
- Describe the methodology and tools for identifying, submitting, analyzing, prioritizing, tracking, mitigating, and retiring Project risks.
- Describe the methodology and tools for identifying, submitting, analyzing, prioritizing, tracking, resolving, and closing Project issues.
- Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the Project team in the areas of Risk and Issue management.
- Institutionalize the risk and issue management process for CWDS and set the expectation that all digital service vendors will integrate with the risk and issue management process.
Scope: The scope of this Risk and Issue Management Plan includes the process, constraints and approach to be used by the CWDS team to identify, analyze, plan, implement, monitor and close project risks and issues during the entire life of the project. Stakeholders and Contractors delivering or participating in the delivery of products to the CWDS team will be required to use this Risk and Issue Management Plan in the performance of their project activities. A risk is something that may occur and cause unexpected or unanticipated outcomes. The outcome may have a positive or a negative effect. A positive effect is an opportunity, while a negative effect is a threat. Unanticipated outcomes that yield an opportunity for the project will be defined by quality processes in the CWDS Quality Management Plan. Risks are distinct from an issue, which is an unexpected or unanticipated outcome that is currently causing an adverse impact to the project. This plan includes processes and procedures related to risk and issue management for both the Child Welfare System New System (CWS-NS) project as well as the Child Welfare System/Case Management System (CWS/CMS).
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Role
Responsibility
Service Manager
Service Managers for all CWDS service teams (Communications, Digital Services, Operations or Project Services) have the following responsibilities:
· Lead and coordinate Risk and Issue Identification efforts within the service team
· Document Candidate Risks and Issues that rise to the level of a Project risk or issue
· Lead and coordinate Risk Mitigation (if assigned owner of a Risk)
· Lead and coordinate Issue Resolution (if assigned owner of an Issue)
Scrum Master/ Project Manager
Scrum Masters for all CWDS service teams (Communications, Digital Services, Operations or Project Services) have the following responsibilities:
· Lead and coordinate Risk and Issue Identification efforts within the service team
· Document Candidate Risks and Issues that rise to the level of a Project risk or issue
· Lead and coordinate Risk Mitigation (if assigned owner of a Risk)
· Lead and coordinate Issue Resolution (if assigned owner of an Issue)
Project Staff
(includes core team members, stakeholders, SMEs, etc.)
Project Staff is comprised of core team members, stakeholders, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) that have the following responsibilities:
· Document candidate Risks and Issues
· Lead and coordinate Risk Mitigation (if assigned owner of a Risk)
· Lead and coordinate Issue Resolution (if assigned owner of an Issue)
Risk and Issue Forum
The Risk and Issue Forum meets weekly and alternates each week focusing on identifying new candidate risks and issues and managing existing risks and issues. Risks and Issues. The forum is comprised of the following entities:
· Service Managers
· Scrum Masters
· Service Directors
· Executive Leadership Team (ELT)
· Risk and Issue Manager
The responsibilities of the Risk and Issue Forum members is to:
· Discuss candidate Risks and Issues
· Conduct Risk and Issue analysis (validate risk statement, assign probability/impact/timing criteria, determine risk response strategy)
· Assign ownership to Risks and Issues
· Periodically assess if Risk and Issue information needs to be updated
· Monitor Risk Mitigation efforts
· Monitor Issue resolution efforts
· Validate retirement of Risks and resolution of Issues
Risk and Issue Manager
The CWDS Risk and Issue manager is a member of the Project Management Office (PMO) that has direct responsibility for the following:
· Maintain Project Risks and Issues database in Clarity.
· Facilitate weekly Project Risks and Issues Meeting
· Communicate and coordinate with owners to monitor active Project Risks and Issues
· Update the status of active Risks and Issues in Clarity.
· Provide status reports to Risk and Issue Forums, Project team and the Executive Leadership Team.
Executive Leadership Team (ELT)
· Provide guidance and direction to risks and issues that are escalated for executive decision making.
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Introduction: A risk is the possibility of an issue that has not occurred yet, and if it occurs it would have a negative impact on a project (risk threat) or a positive benefit to the project (risk opportunity). Risks can become issues if they are not addressed properly. The process of risk management includes identifying, analyzing and addressing risks in order to mitigate their negative effects on a project. The risk management approach for the CWDS Project encompasses the following steps:
- 1. Risk Identification
- 2. Risk Analysis
- 3. Risk Response Planning
- 4. Risk Response Plan Execution
- 5. Monitor and Control Risks
Risk Management Process Flow: The following table describes the CWDS Project Risk Management Process Flow:
Process Number
Description
1
Identification and documentation of candidate risk.
Risk identification focuses on identification of potential events which could impact the overall success of the project. Project Risks can be identified by many entities including the following:
· CWS-NS Service Teams that participate in the Scrum Process:
· Service Manager/Scrum Master of a Service Team actively work service team centric risks within their service team.
· Service Manager/Scrum Master of a Service Team may identify and document a candidate Project risk that impacts cross-functional teams or has the potential to impact the overall project.
· CWS-NS Service Teams that do not participate in Scrum Process:
· Service Manager/Scrum Master of a Service Team may identify and document a candidate Project risk that impacts cross-functional teams or has the potential to impact the overall project
· Project Management Office (PMO) – PMO may identify and document candidate risk or risks. In addition, PMO reviews risks identified by IV&V and IPOC in order to determine which of those risks, if any, shall be documented as a candidate risk or risks.
· Project Staff – all project staff have the ability to identify and document a candidate Project risk that has the potential to impact the overall project
· CWS/CMS – Legacy system risks are included on the global risk register and all candidate risks from CWS/CMS follow the same process as those from CWS-NS.
Once a risk is identified a candidate risk form needs to be completed with information related to the risk including risk analysis (Process Number 2).
2
Analysis – Probability, Impact and Timing
The Service Team, PMO, or any other entity identifying and documenting a candidate risk is responsible for performing risk analysis that includes the following:
· Probability: The likelihood of the risk occurring, expressed as a percentage of either 25%, 50%, 75% or 90%.
· Impact Scale: Assess the impact on the project if the risk occurs:
1. Less than a 5% change to schedule, scope, budget, or quality
2. 5 - 10% change to schedule, scope, budget, or quality
3. 11 – 15% change to schedule, scope, budget, or quality
4. 16 – 24% change to schedule, scope, budget, or quality
5. 25% or greater change to schedule, scope, budget, or quality
· Timing Scale: Defines when risk management activities must begin
1. Within the next six months
2. Six months to a year from now
3. Over a year from now
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Response Planning
Risk response planning is the process of developing options and determining actions to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to the project`s objectives. It includes the identification and assignment of individuals or parties to take responsibility for each agreed risk response.
The CWDS Service Team, PMO, or any other entity identifying and documenting candidate risk may develop a mitigation plan with respect to the risk being identified. Allowable risk responses are:
· Acceptance
· Avoidance
· Mitigation
· Transfer
Risks that have a risk response of Acceptance will not contain any mitigation or contingency planning steps. Risks that have a risk response of Mitigation may have initial mitigation activities identified by the submitter, or may wait to define the mitigation activities until the risk is assigned to an owner.
4 and 5
Review Candidate Risk
After the candidate risk form is completed (Process #s 1, 2, 3) it is submitted to the Project Risks and Issues Manager for review. This review includes verification that the fields of the candidate risk form including the risk statement are correctly filled out. The Project Risks and Issues Manager will discuss with the submitter of the risk if any revisions are needed to the candidate risk form,
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Log/Update identified Risks in Clarity
The Project Risks and Issues Manager will log candidate risks as well as update existing risks in the Risk Database.
7
Assign Owner, validate Risk Analysis. Monitor mitigation and closure of Risk
Once a candidate risk is submitted and added to the Risk Database, the Project Risks and Issues Manager brings it for consideration by the Risk Forum. The Risk Forum will discuss the candidate risk and perform functions that include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Assign an owner for the risk
· Validate Risk Analysis
· Define and Validate Mitigation plan developed by the owner
· Monitor Risk Mitigation activities and closure of the risk
8
Execute Mitigation Plan
Risk Mitigation Plan is executed, after the Risk Forum assigns an owner (Process #7) and validates the Mitigation Plan developed by the risk owner,
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Provide updates to Project Risks and Issues Manager
As the Risk Mitigation Plan is executed, the owner of the Risk provides updates to the Project Risks and Issues Manager. The owner may update the Risk in Clarity (if he or she has access); otherwise the Project Risks and Issues Manager will make the updates in Clarity.
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Monitor Risks
The Project Risks and Issues Manager will monitor active risks, make updates in the Risk Database, develop and provide status reports for the Risk Forum, Project Team, as well as the Executive Leadership Team.
Monitoring of risks will include reassessment of risk information to determine if any changes are needed including changes to information related to probability, impact, timing, or mitigation plans.
Monitoring of risks will also include an analysis of the risk trigger events to determine if a risk has been realized and should be escalated to an issue.
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Escalate if Risk Mitigation requires Executive decision
A Risk Mitigation step or steps may require Executive Decision(s) based on the criteria specified in in the CWDS Project Governance Plan. Based on those criteria, the Project Risks and Issues Manager will escalate such a Risk Mitigation step or steps to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) for guidance and direction.
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Provide guidance and direction to escalated risks
The ELT will provide guidance and direction with respect to the escalated risks that require Executive decision(s) (per Process #11).
The Risk owner shall resume execution of the mitigation plan after ELT has provided guidance and direction.
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Close Risk
If a Risk has been successfully mitigated or if that Risk is no longer applicable the owner will inform the Risks and Issues Manager that the Risk can be retired. The Risk along with the reason as to why it should be retired will be presented at the Risk Forum Meeting. If the Risk Forum agrees, the Risk will be retired and updated as such in the Risk Database. However, if the Risk Forum does not agree to retire the Risk, the owner will need to address the concerns of the Risk Forum and continue to mitigate the Risk.
For all retired risks, part of the Release Retrospective will be to assess risks that were opened and retired as part of the release.
Risk Management Work Flow
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Introduction: An issue is a known event that is currently negatively impacting the project’s chance for success. An issue must be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise it will have detrimental effects on the project. The issue management approach for the CWDS Project encompasses the following steps:
- 1. Issue Identification
- 2. Issue Analysis
- 3. Issue Resolution Planning
- 4. Issue Resolution Plan Execution
- 5. Monitor and Control Issues
Issue Management Process Flow: The following table describes the CWS-NS Project Issue Management Process Flow:
Process Number
Description
1
Identification and documentation of candidate Issue.
Issue identification focuses on a problem, currently occurring, that must be resolved because it is something that is negatively impacting the project objectives such as scope, schedule, cost or quality. Project Issues can be identified by many entities including the following:
· CWS-NS Service Teams that participate in the Scrum Process:
· Service Manager/Scrum Master of a Service Team actively works service team centric issues within their service team.
· Service Manager/Scrum Master of a Service Team may identify and document a candidate Project issue that impacts cross-functional teams or has the potential to impact the overall project.
· CWS-NS Service Teams that do not participate in Scrum Process:
· Service Manager/Scrum Master of a Service Team may identify and document a candidate Project issue that impacts cross-functional teams or has the potential to impact the overall project
· Project Management Office (PMO) – PMO may identify and document candidate issue or issues. In addition, PMO reviews issues identified by IV&V and IPOC in order to determine which of those issues, if any, shall be documented as a candidate risk or risks.
2
Analysis – Impact and Priority
The Service Team, PMO, or any other entity identifying or documenting a candidate issue is responsible for performing issue analysis that includes the following:
· Impact: Description of the impact of the issue on the Project including any impact on the Project scope, schedule, cost, or quality.
· Priority: Whether the issue is of Low, Medium, or High priority for the Project to resolve.
3
Develop Issue Resolution Plan
The Service Team, PMO, or any other entity identifying and documenting candidate issue may develop a resolution plan with respect to the issue being identified. If the entity identifying the issue has a recommendation for the issue resolution, they have an opportunity to document their suggestion. However, the issue owner is ultimately responsible for determining the appropriate resolution plan for resolving the issue.
4 and 5
Review Candidate Issue
After the candidate issue form is completed (Process #s 1, 2, 3) it is submitted to the Project Risks and Issues Manager for review. This review includes verification that the fields of the candidate issue form are correctly filled out. The Project Risks and Issues Manager will discuss with the submitter of the Issue if any revisions are needed to the candidate issue form.
6
Log/Update identified Issues in Clarity
The Project Risks and Issues Manager will log candidate issues as well as update existing issues in Clarity which is the CWS-NS Project Issue Management tool.
7
Assign Owner, validate Issue Analysis. Monitor resolution and closure of Issue
Once a candidate issue is submitted and added to clarity, the Project Risks and Issues Manager brings it for consideration by the Issue Forum which comprises of the Service Directors, Service Managers and Scrum Masters. The Issue Forum will discuss the candidate issue and perform functions that include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Assign an owner for the issue
· Validate issue analysis
· Validate resolution plan developed by the owner
· Monitor issue resolution activities and closure of the issue
8
Execute Resolution Plan
Issue resolution plan is executed, after the Issue Forum assigns an owner (Process #7) and validates the resolution plan developed by the issue owner.
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Provide updates to Project Risks and Issues Manager
As the Issue Resolution Plan is executed, the owner of the Issue provides updates to the Project Risks and Issues Manager. The owner may update the Issue in Clarity (if he or she has access), otherwise the Project Risks and Issues Manager will make the updates in the Issue Database.
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Monitor Issues
The Project Risks and Issues Manager will monitor active issues, make updates in the Issue Database, develop and provide status reports for the Issue Forum, Project Team, as well as the Executive Leadership Team.
Monitoring of issues will include reassessment of the Issue information to determine if any changes are needed including changes to information related to priority, impact or resolution plans.
Monitoring of issues will also include an analysis of the issue resolution events to determine if an issue has introduced any unknown or adverse impacts to the [project and requires the introduction of a new risk.
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Escalate if Issue requires Executive decision
An Issue may require Executive Decision(s) based on the criteria specified in CWDS Project Governance Plan. Based on those criteria, the Project Risks and Issues Manager will escalate such an issue to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) for guidance and direction if needed.
12
Provide guidance and direction to escalated Issues
The ELT will provide guidance and direction with respect to the escalated issues that require Executive decision(s) (per Process #11).
The Issue owner shall resume execution of the resolution plan after ELT has provided guidance and direction.
13
Close Issue
If an Issue has been successfully resolved the owner will inform the Risks and Issues Manager that the issue can be closed. The Issue along with the reason as to why it should be closed will be presented at the Issue Forum Meeting by the Risks and Issues Manager. If the Issue Forum agrees, the Issue will be closed and updated as such in Issue Database by the Risks and Issues Manager. However, if the Issue Forum does not agree to close the Issue, the owner will need to address the concerns of the Issue Forum and continue to resolve the Issue.
For all closed issues, part of the Release Retrospective will be to assess issues that were opened and resolved as part of the release.
Issue Management Work Flow
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Project Risk Database: All information pertaining to the Risk throughout its lifecycle will be stored in Project Risk Database. The CWS-NS Project will use Clarity for this purpose.
Project Issue Database: All information pertaining to the Issue throughout its lifecycle will be stored in Project Issue Database. The CWS-NS Project will use Clarity for this purpose.
Candidate Risk Form: Below is an example of the Candidate Risk form.
Risk ID: <<Provided by Risk/Issue Manager>>
Reported By: Date Reported:
Risk Title:
Risk Statement:
Risk Description:
Impact Description:
Trigger Event:
Risk Response Type: (Accept, Avoid, Mitigate, Transfer)
Probability Scale (percentage):
Impact Scale (1= very low, 5 = very high):
Timing Scale (<6 months, six months to a year, over 1 year from now):
Owner:
Recommended Mitigation:
Candidate Issue Form: Below is an example of the Candidate Issue form.
Issue ID: <<Provided by Issue/Risk Manager>>
Issue Title:
Issue Description:
Impact Description:
Priority (Low, Medium, High):
Category (drop down list of type of issue)
Date Submitted: Submitted by:
Owner: <<TBD>>
Resolution Plan/Next Steps:
Status: (Candidate, Open, Resolved) Due Date:
Date Closed: Resolution: