Mindavation Risk Identi ication Checklist

Requirements/Solution De inition
Requirements Source
Have requirements been jointly developed by the customer and the solution team? Were requirements
supplied by the customer via an RFP or similar means?

Was an overview provided by the customer team? If so, has risk been analyzed?

Do you anticipate requirements will be developed or refined through project phases?

Has a “gap analysis” been conducted?

Are the requirements documented?

Is there any lack of confidence in the accuracy of the requirements? Is requirement development considered a
part of the project?

Have diagrams such as process models, use cases, and workflow models been used to document the as-is and
to-be business processes?

Has a checklist been used to validate the requirements (i.e., complete, prioritized, measurable, clear, specific)?
Has a business analyst been leveraged to collect, document, and analyze the requirements?

Has a technical writer been utilized to document the requirements?

Requirements Stability
Are the requirements stable and expected to remain as such?

Is a moderate level of flux expected with the requirements? Can the project be planned to accommodate
these changes? Is a high level of changes or refinements expected? Has the risk associated with this been
analyzed?

Are the requirements not well defined or clearly documented? Are performance parameters part of the
requirements?

If performance requirements are documented, are they achievable? Are performance parameters unclear?

Are performance parameters set and fixed (unchangeable), yet unclear?

Are performance parameters above standard or currently achieved expectations?

Have the vital customer/stakeholders participated in the requirements process?

Are assumptions documented, reviewed, and agreed to by the customer?

Are additional assumptions anticipated during the project?

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Solution or Proposal Development

Time and Resources

Does adequate time exist to develop a solution without broad assumptions?

Does new technology have to be developed to implement the solution?

Are customer resources available to expand data, answer questions, review plans, etc.? Is information
missing that is required to develop the solution?

Does your organization possess the expertise in house to implement the solution? Is adequate project
management available?

Are standard/tested costing processes in place to provide estimates? Will other projects be impacted if
this project is initiated?

Will the project involve transition from existing systems? Will the project involve process changes for end
users?

Are end users involved in planning if process changes are expected?

Are backup, recovery, and maintenance needs known at this time and documented clearly?

Are testing personnel available, and have they reviewed the requirements?

Is the budget for this project small, medium, or large, and does this bring additional risk?

Is the duration of the project going to be fast-tracked?

Is the duration of this project longer than 9 months?

Solution Characteristics
Has a similar solution been delivered before?

Are those who developed a similar solution available to the project team?

Will any technology be used for the first time by the project team?

Has the team worked in an environment like this one before?

Is the solution considered straightforward, or of medium or high complexity?

(Consider number of components, number of interfaces, levels in the technical architecture.) Is the entire
solution designed at this time?

Does the solution consist of entirely standard hardware/software? Will customization of any hardware/
software components be needed? Are any beta versions of hardware or software being considered?

Is any undeveloped system needing modification part of the project critical path?

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Can the available development environment be used to build/test the solution?
Does the customer have any understanding of the tools/processes being used to develop the solution? Can a
prototype(s) be developed as part of the solution development?

Can performance be tested in a cost-effective manner before a system test?

Are the capabilities of the solution components known at this time? Are multiple operating systems (NOS or
CPU) involved in the solution? Is equipment from multiple vendors needed to be part of the solution?

Have the vendor’s equipment/standards been evaluated for compatibility?

In instances where vendors have stated that their products are compatible to another involved in the solution,
have other customers been consulted to determine if that capability does indeed exist, and was it difficult to
create the interface?

Are multiple vendors being engaged for construction of components that must directly integrate? Are any
vendors, suppliers, or personnel being sourced from other countries?

Is any multilanguage support needed in the solution?

Are multiple email or messaging systems involved in the solution (or current platform)?

Are multiple cultures involved in the customer environment? Do they need to accept the solution?

Project Characteristics
Schedule and Resource Capabilities
How flexible is each of the “triple constraints”?

Are any of the triple constraints “unmovable” (e.g., year 2000 remediation projects had a “drop-dead date.”)?
Were any estimating models or standard parameters (like LOC) available for estimating this project?

Will there be any contracting companies or vendors involved in the project that you haven’t worked with
before? Do we have access to subcontractor SOW’s that are similar to what we have to create for this project?

Do you have commitments from the appropriate vendors that their roles can be fulfilled appropriately? Are
project estimates dependent upon the successful implementation of new technology?

Are project estimates dependent upon successful implementation of technology by vendors or the customer?
Were experienced project members and technical personnel involved in creating the estimates for this project?
Were experienced project members involved in creating the risk analysis for this project?

Were any workload estimations made on behalf of the vendors that will be executing the work?

If so, have the vendors reviewed those estimates?

Are there dependencies in the project that involve the customer? Are those dependencies significant? Has the
customer reviewed all dependencies and agreed to them?

Has the project management team managed a project of this type, size, and complexity before?

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Have outside resources been engaged in reviewing the project documentation, estimates, assumptions,
etc.? Will you have labor/experience issues as you progress through the project?

Will third-party project-management resources need to be employed to manage the project?

Have key personnel been committed to the project?

Have key vendor or software vendor commitments been negotiated for the project?

Has the customer’s infrastructure been evaluated to determine the effects the project may have on the
environment?

Is the customer engaging other vendors to interface with the project team in delivering the results of the
project? Has the customer identified all of the resources they will bring to bear to manage the project, as
well as the deliverable(s)? Will there be any personnel that belong to labor unions involved in the project?

Has the customer proposed a project manager to oversee your project management and delivery?

Team and Deliverable Elements

Are all of the responsibilities for the project team and the customer documented and agreed to? Has a
project glossary been created and reviewed by team members and the customer?

Is the testing/completion criteria documented and agreed to?

Is full change control in place, and does the process have customer buy-in?

Are there any warranty periods or warranty considerations implied? If warranties are formally documented,
have plans been created to test against those criteria?

Have measurement metrics been determined for the project? Have they been reviewed with the customer?

Are the metrics reasonable in terms of attainability and the administration required to collect and evaluate
them?

Do the metrics resemble those collected and provided on other projects the team has delivered? Are the
attainment levels similar? Are there penalties/rewards for performance for the project? What effect can they
have on team behavior and decision making? Who will be judging project integrity from the customer
environment, and is their agenda understood?

Do you believe expectations exist within the customer environment that are not part of the definition of the
project?

Does the customer understand the level of training that must occur for the solution to be effective? Is that
training planned for? Has the project team worked with this customer set before? Are there relationships
(good and bad) that may affect the project?

Is there more than one major customer involved in this project? Are they in sync with each other? Is there a
clear decision maker? Have all necessary technical team members (deliverers of the solution) agreed to the
solution, deliverables, and schedule?

Are the customer resources assigned to the project experienced in this type of project?

Will the customer be using this project as an education base for project team members?
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Does the customer have other projects that may affect the availability or capability of the
customers project team members?

Can the customer support the solution that will result from this project?

Do any of the vendors have a vested interest in elements of the project solution beyond those
they are responsible for? Will the proposed solution meet the customer’s requirements?

Are there dependencies on third parties not directly involved in the project (e.g., county
government approval to dig for telecom lines)?

Has a project-deliverable acceptance plan been written? Was the customer involved in creating it?
Has the customer approved it? Does the warranty considerations involve guaranteeing project
components that are beyond your control (e.g., a Microsoft product)? Are other vendors’
guarantees in place as a result of the project solution, and will they apply for the end customer?

Transition/Installation
Transition Plan
Who created the transition plan? The project team? The customer? Both? Was a vendor involved
in the creation of installation plans?

To what detail is the installation/transition plan? Have transition elements been tested?

Are there customer dependencies in the transition plan? Are there vendor dependencies in the
transition plan? To what degree does the project team understand the customer’s environment?

What is the possibility of there being changes to the customer environment before/during/after
the project is installed? How could this affect the project?

Are tracking tools in place (or expected to be in place) to determine the impact of project
installation on the customer’s infrastructure? Has the project team engaged in a transition/
installation like this before? Has the customer engaged in a transition/installation like this before?

Are key project team members going to be available to perform/diagnose/debug any installation
issues? Have commitments been made with vendor companies/personnel on working through
installation issues?

Will the customer have critical/confidential data involved in the installation? Will that restrict
project team or vendors during installation?

Could a failure on installation become information of public record and therefore impact the
customer or the project team (or both)?

Are there potential liability impacts to the project team or its members?

Are there post-installation support considerations? What impact can they have on the project team
organization or vendors?

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Installation Considerations
How many customer departments are involved in the installation?

How many customer locations (distinct buildings) are involved in the installation? How many sites
(different cities) are involved in the installation?

Are any international sites involved in the installation?

How many contractor or vendor organizations will be involved in the installation?

Will any contractor or vendor organizations that haven’t previously been involved in the project be
involved come installation time? Have the people responsible for customer-infrastructure
management ever been involved in an installation of this type?

Have the people responsible for customer-infrastructure management been involved in the project
prior to installation? Are installation headcount estimates reasonable? Have they been created as a
result of similar experiences?

Will the customer be involved in the installation/assessment process?

Has the customer created the critical test cases to be used to evaluate the success of the
installation? How much time will be available to the installation team to work out any “bugs”?

Does the installation of this project involve mission-critical elements for the customer?

Are there backup plans, are they practical, and how expensive will they be to implement? Are the
backup plans testable prior to the installation exercise?

Are there plans for the customer to install other project solutions shortly before or after this project?

Have the appropriate vendors committed to the installation schedule (including TIME OF DAY)?

Does the installation schedule allow for review and updating of plans for multiple sites, based upon
lessons learned?

Has access to all appropriate facilities been arranged with the customer? Do they have local 24/7
available resources during installation?

Have travel costs been estimated in the installation plans?

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