Most projects don’t fail because of one big risk… they fail because no one properly assessed the overall level of risk at the start. That’s where a Risk Potential Review (or Risk Potential Assessment) comes in.
In this video, I’ll walk you through exactly how to carry one out — step by step — from understanding your project context, through identifying key stakeholders and major risk factors, to evaluating risks and calculating an overall risk potential score. We’ll also look at how to use your findings to inform governance decisions and set your project up for success from day one.
If you want better decisions, stronger oversight, and fewer nasty surprises… this is a tool you need in your toolkit.
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Risk Potential Review (RPR)
Also called Risk Potential Assessment (RPA)
A Risk Potential Review (RPR) is an early, structured look at how “risky” a project is likely to be, so sponsors can decide whether to proceed, and if so, what controls to put in place. It is deliberately high‑level and front‑loaded, done before detailed planning. Its purpose is not to produce a full risk register, but to expose the major sources of uncertainty, complexity, and vulnerability so the project team can plan appropriately.
Understand Project Context
Before considering risk, establish a shared understanding of what the project is trying to achieve. Key activities include:
- Reviewing business objectives and intended benefits
- Understanding the scope and constraints
- Identifying key assumptions
- Clarifying success criteria
At this stage, you are asking: What exactly are we trying to do, and what conditions must be true for success?
At this stage, you will also want to convene a cross-functional group: Finance, Legal, Technical, and Operations, to uncover ‘unknown unknowns’ that a single PM might miss.
Gather Information and Identify Key Stakeholders
- Identify the right people to involve: sponsor, PM, key technical leads, finance, operations, legal / compliance, and any major suppliers or users.
- Collect existing documentation: business case, concept brief, high‑level schedule, assumptions list, dependency map, if available.
- Decide the format: short workshop, interviews plus a consolidation session, or a questionnaire‑based assessment.
Identify Major Risk Factors
Next, examine the project across a set of structured risk categories. These help the team explore risk systematically rather than relying on brainstorming alone.
Typical domains include:
- Strategy and alignment
- Scope and Complexity
- Stakeholders and governance
- Technology and technical complexity
- Delivery capability
- People and organizational constraints
- Suppliers and partners
- Schedule and dependencies
- Finance and resources
- External factors (regulation, market, environment)
Evaluate Substantive Project Risks
Identify possible future events that could affect the project, using the risk drivers as prompts.
- Use approaches like:
- Workshops with the project team and key stakeholders
- Interviews with subject matter experts
- Lessons learned from previous projects
- Phrase each risk clearly as cause–event–effect, for example: “Because the core technology is unproven, performance tests may fail, causing re‑design and a 3‑month delay.”
- Separate threats (negative risks) from opportunities (positive risks) if helpful, but RPR usually focuses on threats.
Calculate Risk Potential Review Score
A standard RPR evaluates the project across several critical dimensions. You should score each of these on a simple scale:
- Complexity: Is the technology new? Are we integrating legacy systems?
- Procurement: Does the project rely on a single, unproven vendor?
- Schedule: Is there an immovable deadline (e.g., a regulatory change)?
- Public/Political Sensitivity: Will failure result in a PR nightmare or legal action?
- Capability: Does the current team have the skills to pull this off?
Then, aggregate them to find the project’s Risk Potential. Now step back and answer: “How risky is this project as a whole?”
Document, Communicate, and Use RPR for Decision-making
Produce a clear summary of the project’s risk posture. This typically includes:
- Project context and objectives
- Key high-risk areas
- Main drivers of uncertainty
- Recommended mitigation actions
- Implications for schedule, cost, or scope
- Overall risk potential rating and rationale
- A recommendation on whether the project is suitable to proceed
- recommended conditions, mitigations, and next steps, if the project does proceed.
Present this to the sponsor and steering group, and explicitly discuss:
- Go / no‑go / revise‑and‑resubmit.
- Conditions for approval (for example, “only proceed if vendor X is contracted” or “must complete pilot before full rollout”).
- Required level of ongoing risk management and governance.
The output of your RPR is an input to:
- project approval decisions
- project planning
- early risk management activities.
Determine Governance Implications (if Project goes ahead)
Use the findings to size contingency (time and budget) and effort for risk management. Adjust the scope, phasing, and delivery strategy to reduce risk exposure where possible.
The output of your RPR should dictate the type of governance you will need if you do the project. For example:
- Low Risk: Monthly reporting, light-touch PMO oversight.
- Medium Risk: Bi-weekly reporting, dedicated Risk Owner, and formal oversight Board.
- High Risk: Weekly steering committee meetings, external audits, and a contingency budget of at least 20%.
What Kit does a Project Manager Need?
I asked Project Managers in a couple of forums what material things you need to have, to do your job as a Project Manager. They responded magnificently. I compiled their answers into a Kit list. I added my own.
Check out the Kit a Project Manager needs
Note that the links are affiliated.
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