A project with impending risks has 12 deliverables as subprojects, which will be executed in three different locations involving multiple stakeholders. What should the risk manager do to organize the prevailing risks?

For a project of this complexity—involving multiple subprojects, locations, and stakeholders—a comprehensive risk identification strategy is essential. Combining individual assessment techniques (like interviews or surveys) with group techniques (like focus groups or facilitated workshops) is the most effective approach. Individual methods ensure that a wide range of perspectives are captured without the influence of groupthink. Subsequently, focus groups allow for collaborative discussion, clarification, and consolidation of these individually identified risks. This synergistic approach leads to the creation of a robust and well-organized overall risk register, which directly addresses the need to "organize the prevailing risks."

B. Using only focus groups can lead to groupthink, where dominant personalities may overshadow other valuable perspectives, resulting in an incomplete risk list.
C. Relying solely on individual assessments lacks the collaborative synergy needed to validate, prioritize, and build a shared understanding of the identified risks.
D. An external assessment alone is insufficient as it overlooks the critical, nuanced knowledge held by the internal project team and key stakeholders.

1. Project Management Institute. (2019). The Standard for Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects.

Section 4.3.2.2, Data Gathering: This section lists various techniques for risk identification, including interviews (an individual technique) and brainstorming (often a group technique). The standard emphasizes that the choice of tools should be tailored to the project's needs. For a complex project, a combination of these tools is considered best practice to ensure comprehensive identification.

2. Project Management Institute. (2017). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition.

Section 11.2.2.2, Data Gathering: This section details interviews as a method "to obtain information from stakeholders" on an individual basis.

Section 11.2.2.5, Meetings: This section describes risk workshops and meetings (analogous to focus groups) as a primary technique for risk identification, noting their effectiveness in fostering a "collective ownership of the project risks." The guide implicitly supports using multiple tools for a thorough process.

3. Hillson, D. (2002). The Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) as an Aid to Effective Risk Management. Proceedings of the 5th European Project Management Conference.

This paper, while focused on the RBS, discusses the importance of a structured approach to risk identification. It highlights that effective identification often involves multiple methods, including "brainstorming sessions, workshops, interviews, and meetings," to populate the structure comprehensively, reinforcing the value of a combined approach. (Available through various academic databases and PMI.org).