Hello Folks, Let me tell you, This nlog is very crucial for Project Manager role, so I suggest, you go through this blog till the end. In this blog, we are going to cover – What is RAID? Hey.. Wait wait… I am not going to talk about What is Income Tax RAID, and how you can get saved from it… So then what is RAID in Project Management? To know more, Let’s get started
First, Let’s have a look at, What is Log?
The Term Log, when it is used in Project Management, refers to a list which contains all items that are tracked during entire project duration from start to end. The log will have all historical progress of items included in it. It is updated regularly to have adequate point in time status of items. And the data collected from it is used for Auditing purpose.
There are various types of logs such as
- Defect Log
- Quality Control Log
- Action Log
- And many more
And One of the most important Log in Project Management which we are going to discuss in this episode is RAID Log.
The RAID Log is mainly used to track Risks and Issues in the Project. Issues will always develop during the course of a project. Risks, on the other hand, are issues that have not yet occurred. The RAID log maintains both the risks, that you anticipates and the issues that have occurred.
RAID Log is most important tool for Project Manager, it is used to log and track Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependency. There is another variant of it where the A stands for Action and D stands for Decision.
I hope you are taking this up as very important topic to be learnt in Project management. Yes, indeed it is very crucial to understand this fully, Now Stay tuned for another few mins to quickly catch up on RAID elements one by one…
Let’s see What is Risk?
Risk is an unexpected event that can affect your project. It can be taken as opportunity to exploit or as a threat to be suppressed. It is an exposure to an uncertain future event that can impact any project parameter: i.e., Scope Time and Cost and can create a hurdle on project ‘s completion. Project manager identify events or activities that either increase or decrease the chance of the risk from happening and becoming an issue. Project Manager analyze the possibility of occurring, assess the severity, and a prepare a mitigation plan for the risk accordingly.
Next, What is Assumption?
Assumption is a project factor that is considered to be true without any pragmatic proof
As the project team completes the work, a project manager may expect that something will remain the same or something will change.
We operate under assumptions all of the time in our regular life, we expect things to be normal around and we allow ourselves to work without any hassle. Similarly as Project manager, we make assumptions in our projects too.
What’s important is, that we regularly review the assumptions made are still holding true and if it doesn’t, then we react and make necessary changes in the plan and execute it thoroughly
It’s also important to note that every project assumption is a potential risk too, knowing how to recognize such assumptions and having controls in place to ensure that if any assumption turns out to be erroneous, the impact on project execution is minimal
The other A stands for Action, Let’s see What is Action?
Action is a activity to be performed as part of the project. Project manager is required to create the list of activities, assign it to project team and track them for its completion.
The tracking of project activities in RAID Log determines the progress made in the project time to time. And the view of project activities list gives a point in time status of the project.
It also determines whether the project is running on time or has any delay to be addressed. We also saw about Action in the episode 1 and 2 as part of understanding the scope. You can go through those episodes one more time for better understanding.
I am glad that you are still here and making effort to cover this fully along with me.. Lets proceed further to the next section of RAID Log.
Let’s see What is Issue?
Issue is a matter that is occurred. It creates a difficulty in completing the work that is already on the project’s Action List.
At first, the issue needs to be identified and a resolution plan is created to order to resolve the issue. An issue occurred can affect any project parameter i.e., Scope, Time and Cost. It can cause a delay in schedule, it can lead to change the design or it can pull more money to resolve it.
Project Manager tracks the Issue in the RAID Log, analyze the impact of it on the Project completion and makes a direction to resolve the issue along with team. Also let everyone know, how the issue is managed and resolved so to bring all team members in alignment.
Next, What is Dependency?
Dependency – as the name suggest, it is a must require item to be completed in order to make progress in the project. It can be a deliverable, sufficient budget or a pending approval.
Project manager is required to track the dependency in the RAID log, it allows project to start and progress with required items in place, by resolving the dependencies.
Clear articulation of dependency log will result in least ambiguity and on time resolution of dependency leads to smoother execution of the project. In order to achieve that, dependencies are shared with right owners of it and also made sure that they are well understood by the owner.
The other D Stands for Decision, Let’s see what is Decision?
Decisions are carried out mainly in the project execution, these are outcome after analyzing various possibilities of project implementation, this leads to prepare a decision log to record the characteristics of it such as What was the decision, How and Why it was made and Who made it.
Decision are such as design decision, third party vendor finalization, additional procurements, etc. It can also be high influential decisions which impacts the project parameters such as changes in scope, schedule and cost.
With respect to record changes, There is another way to document it which is known as “Change management Process”, which we will learn in upcoming episodes.
Hope you got to pick some new stuff today, Project Management is not just a lamely phenomenon, there is whole lot of science and methods to it, which diligently need to be follow to achieve the right success.
Don’t go away, Now, It’s time for some action item
To practise create a RAID log, Pick any 1 project from your dashboard and start adding RAID items which we discussed.
Create separate buckets for Risks, Assumption, Actions, Issues, Dependency and Decision. You can even create separate spreadsheets to identify the items appropriately.
If you are doing it for first time, then this might be little tough for you, but don’t worry, you can type your queries down below and we will solve it together.
So friends, I hope you are fully charged now to get down and start writing RAID log for your project. Let me tell you this, if you really master this technique of writing a good RAID log, you are certainly playing your game 1 level up then your peers.
Thank you all. That’s all for this blog, Have a Great day, Bye Bye.
