In the Defence industry, Risk Management is paramount. Most Defence companies have a whole department dedicated to it. No bid or project can start without a Risk Management Review and no bid will be accepted by a potential customer without the inclusion of a Risk Management Plan.

Risk Management is an ongoing process – it’s cradle to grave, starting on receipt of an invitation to tender, covering the bid period, the life of the project up to delivery then on through subsequent support phases.

The process, following distribution of an invitation to tender, will be that the allocated Risk Manager calls a meeting of all the department heads or their representatives. Thus, the attendance in respect of a sizeable bid will be something like Risk Manager (Chairman), Project Manager, Bid Manager, Marketing Manager, Technical Lead, Quality Assurance, Configuration Management, Integrated Logistics Support and Verification and Acceptance Representatives, Procurement Manager, Contract Manager and Finance Manager.

A full day will be allocated to the review and a number of systems may be used but one favourite is brain storming. Each member of the team writes as many risks as they can think of on sticky notes. These risks may be anything from insufficient resources in contracts department put delivery of bid on time at risk to lateness of supplier deliveries delay programme. As with most brain storming, anything goes, no matter how stupid an idea may appear. » Read more: Risk Management – Identification and Planning