Pre-Mortem
The Pre-Mortem is a proactive risk assessment technique where the team imagines the project has failed and then brainstorms the reasons why. This helps uncover potential problems early, allowing for preventative action and increasing the likelihood of success.
Use this method at the beginning of a project, after the plan is understood, to identify and mitigate potential risks before they materialize.
Solves: Unacknowledged risks leading to project failure; reluctance to voice concerns early in a project.
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Step 1: Introduce the activity (5 min). Explain that the team will imagine the project has failed spectacularly.
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Step 2: Brainstorm failure scenarios (20-30 min). Ask each team member to individually consider and write down all the reasons why the project might have failed.
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Step 3: Share and consolidate risks (15-20 min). Have each person share their failure scenarios. Group similar risks and create a consolidated list.
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Step 4: Prioritize and plan mitigation (10-15 min). As a group, prioritize the risks based on likelihood and impact. Develop concrete actions to prevent or mitigate each key risk.
- Encourage honesty and open communication; create a safe space for sharing concerns.
- Ensure all team members participate and contribute their perspectives.
- Focus on identifying actionable mitigation strategies.
- Use a voting system to prioritize risks.
- Assign owners to each mitigation strategy to ensure accountability.
- Conduct a mini pre-mortem at key project milestones to identify emerging risks.