Thursday Risk Mitigation

Gosh, our assignment is certainly the big one, so much content to get through. We continued coming up with mitigation plans today for our 12 critical risks (increased by 1 today after one of our Interviews). We are also running a training session on Monday now to ensure our key stakeholders have expertise in the methodology we have used, and can continue assessing and logging risks after we have departed. That's another presentation to get ready for, on ptop of finalizing our deliverable and preparing our final presentation, so no chance of boredom for us :)

Our interviews today provided some reassurance that we are on the right track and that our final deliverable is going to meet expectations. That's welcome encouragement, as on such a short assignment, there is no time for mistakes or rework now. Our key stakeholders are relieved to hear our 196 risks can be sorted under just 5 categories, and that addressing the 12 critical risks will remove or dramatically reduce negative impacts on a large number of those other risks. Of course, this creates a little more work for us to show approx what percentage of risks disappear or reduce after addressing the big 12.

I needed something other than chicken and rice for lunch today, so I had a grilled chicken burger and Jollof rice. Jollof rice is very common in Ghana, it is a spicy sort of fried rice, with a red colour. The spices and I don't always get along, today was no exception. I wonder what my team mates must think :)




IBMers are a diverse lot, we're certainly not all IT evangelists from way back. Two of my team members here for example wanted to be vets. One went on to gain a CPA and is a very talented finance guru, the other achieved a doctorate in chemistry, yet both fell into a long career with IBM, the Dr now running the Daimler account (a car company)! So you just can't judge these amazing people. Bringing this talent together is what makes us great, my role is to bring everyone back down to humble peasant reality :). Actually, it's been a pleasure to bring the project management skill to bear for the team, and help/show everyone the path to risk management. In our first week, I was doing a lot of talking, but my team are now the masters, they are taking this further and making it better every day. In kind, I'm learning about global management from them, IBM, and about people and values. It might take a while for it to all sink in, but it is an incredible experience bringing all this together in one place.


- Keep on Rockin'. Dwight.

Location:Eight Rd,Accra,Ghana