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@Loraini said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredictable category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs. The project had to spend some money to unplanned activities to help these communities back on their feet.

@Framunga said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@Loraini said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredictable category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs. The project had to spend some money to unplanned activities to help these communities back on their feet.

this is good keep up

@emmanuelaboagyeduah said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

It was in May 2018 when our organization, as part of our quest to gain financial freedom for women, organized a three-day (Wednesday to Friday) cosmetics training for 30 women beneficiaries in a community. The organizers had talked to the care taker of the community social centre where the training was to take place. Without considering the risk of loosing the place, the team did not look for another center. The team moved to the community on Tuesday only to be told the social centre had been booked for a funeral activities. The stress the team went through to arrange for another place taught us to never leave anything to chance.
Had it not been for a hotel's conference Hall that was free for the period, we would have had to stop the programme all together, and sums of money thrown away.
Failure to consider such activities as the funeral also caused almost 40% of beneficiaries not turning up for the program.

It is the best thing to consider all possible risks and assumptions when planning for any project

This Is good Emanuel.great work

@joykirinda said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I was part of a road construction project funded by the government. During planning, we based our cash inflows on the fact that we would receive payments for work done in utmost three months after the requests. This meant that we needed to secure at least 3 months if our cash flow requirements at project commencement. However, to our surprise, we spent over a year without receiving any payments from government amidst all the site expenses we had to clear.

Yes risk and Assumptions that every thing will go as planned but what it fail.
Nice work keep up

I was part of the project to create awareness about cultural sexual practices in the rural areas of zambia, our were assumption and risk was that maybe the community would not accept our awareness on cultural sexual practice since has been part of them for ages. maybe parents would not allow there children to attend our meetings.

For private sector engagement, when the company changed/revised its policy differently from the intended outcome we designed and generated.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about external context and do the formative research to look for evidence to support your output/outcome.

Its important to put yourself in the scenario and think of the events that could happen

Also environment scanning is very important.

a good way to overcome the negative effects of risk and assumptions is to research about similar projects done earlier and see challenges they faced and how they overcame them. In addition identify and write down the risks and assumptions for each stage starting from the bottom until the impact stage

I really like this section, we have to seen the different mindset of people on asked question. By reading all their comments we can clear our confusion. Risk and Assumption can clearly identifies the negative aspects that can take happen in any project. Before launching our project some of our sources said our competitor try to make a deal with our investors that a very critical and difficult to handle.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the potential impacts and understand all events and conditions that are unforeseeable which can affect the project and plan. Last year i had a project where we had to rebuild the project just after a months of preparation, the project didn't happen since no participate showed up. The team were so disappointed and its discouraged most of the member resulted to some opting out. If we could have foresee and come up with risks and assumption we could not end up being disappointed.

That was so great that you and your team discovered risks and assumption prier the project begins.
If I may ask,

1. was there any unforeseen risks you came around? e.g unexpected number of people attended the tutorials?
2. what were the outcome of the tutorial?

@shamsuddeen said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Following this module, I realized the importance of identifying risks and assumption during M&E plan, because it gives you to me , a prediction of the the reverse of you objective or I would say the reverse of your project summary.
Thus identifying risk and assumption is an import part of M&E plan for an effective project.

I remembered vividly when me and my friends were trying to organize a tutorial in my community at Jos North Plateau State Nigeria. After all have been said, about how we intended running the tutorial, one us asked the questions below:

What if we couldn't get a conducive place to give the tutorials?
What if we don't have money to buy chalk?

With the above questions posed, we needed to rethink of ways to solve these problems in case they arise.

That was so great that you and your team discovered risks and assumption prier the project begins.
If I may ask,

was there any unforeseen risks you came around? e.g unexpected number of people attended the tutorials?
what were the outcome of the tutorial?

with Saving Lives project, after my organisation had intensively trained targeted health staff on digital health data collection and reporting, to our greatest surprised the health staff were unable to collect health data and report from the digital tablets (Samsung Tablets) to the dhis2 for the first two months of reporting after we had trained them. the reason according to some of them they were novice in using smart screen tablets, and other said it was another burden to their already overloaded duties at the health facility. this unexpected incident nearly cost the project outputs, outcomes and impacts.

My experience with this event was that: I never expected 21st century educated health workers scared of using smart-tablets/phones after intensive training on how to collect and report health data. Secondly, I did realized and empathized with them the additional job responsibility added to their already overloaded health facility work. the third experienced was, we had to conduct refresher training and incentive for monthly data collection and reporting which would had cost implication to the project budget, scope and time.
The tips in identifying risks and assumptions should be to ask the following questions:
What would go wrong that would affect the outputs, outcomes and impacts of the project?
Is there any unforeseen event that might prevent you from providing the inputs of the project?
If you actually provides the required inputs , you would be sure that these inputs will lead to the ouputs of the pr

In designing and planning our ongoing Sayana Press injectable contraceptive rollout, we thought we could meet and secure the buy-in of identified Ministry of Health stakeholders in one day due to the timing of the project. Surprisingly, we couldn't as some were not to be found, some couldn't take their call or respond to their email and some others rescheduled our meeting. As a result, our project kick start date was very much delayed and plan altered. We actually assumed we wrongly and perhaps, should have done proper risk assessement of stakholders meeting activity part of the project. Great lessons learned!

To identify risks and assumptions, it is very important to consider the things that pose as a threat to the project at large. In some occasions, assumptions may culminate to threats/risks. a risk is anything that threatens the success of a project. An assumption on the other hand are some of the things we fail to take keen note of. In a certain project we are working on in our project, we assumed that there will be no political issues and there will be stability. Along the way however, some of the countries in which we were to launch the roll-out experienced turbulence in the political environment. We therefore had to postpone the training to a later date after things had cooled off. We had assumed that the given country had no political issues f concern that would affect the project.

During a vaccination campaign, we assumed that it was a dry season and hence pastoralists will be settled around major watering points hence it will be easier to locate them. unknown to us it had rained some 50 Km away from our target site and livestock has already started migrating to those areas tat received rain.

@Arithi said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

During a vaccination campaign, we assumed that it was a dry season and hence pastoralists will be settled around major watering points hence it will be easier to locate them. unknown to us it had rained some 50 Km away from our target site and livestock has already started migrating to those areas tat received rain.

We had to reschedule our program to allow the pastoralists to migrate to these new sites.

@Framunga said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@joykirinda said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I was part of a road construction project funded by the government. During planning, we based our cash inflows on the fact that we would receive payments for work done in utmost three months after the requests. This meant that we needed to secure at least 3 months if our cash flow requirements at project commencement. However, to our surprise, we spent over a year without receiving any payments from government amidst all the site expenses we had to clear.

Yes risk and Assumptions that every thing will go as planned but what it fail.
Nice work keep up

This is
usually a reality with Governments. They receive funding from NGOs and other donors but hoard the money until the project life is extended. For emergency programs like livestock vaccination, we have to be careful on the planning bearing in mind that delays caused can result into a disaster if a disease outbreak occurs

@apostledavid58 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I was once part of a LoveLife Ngo tram and we headed to rural communities to distribute condoms and pass on some sex-health information...we had roughly estimated a turn up of less that 100 participants and the local community hall. But to pur Suprise we had ran out of Flyers and condom packs to give away....

great move

@jkurama said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

We hard a project to evaluate the influence of bribery to voters decision to vote a particular candidate. We went through all the approval processes, but in one of the districts, the district internal security officer even after meeting with him and the District police officer and all the district officials and all approved. After a few weeks of work he decided to withdraw his approval and chase us from the district. We went to other districts where were welcome but but he put announcements over the radio and called other security officers to chase us to.
After getting all the approvals we did not anticipate this, so we hard to recall our officers from the field and we hard fresh engagements with these officials and provided all the (un)necessary documentations that they wanted but the underlying issue was that he had engaged in bribing voters and he feared that he would be found out. we re-assured him that the information will be held in strict confidence and that we do not attache names in the data and we were allowed to continue with work.

good insight

At Water Collective International, we went to monitor one of our community Water projects in Cameroon, precisely in the south West Region without taking into conisderation that it is the rainy season when roads are generally bad.
upon arrival at motor cycle station, we didcovered that the transport fair has increased. We tried to negociate to no avail so we were forced to spent the night at the village trying to get in contact with the progrm manager.
This finally affected the planned budget of the field work.
because of that, we were one day late to our planned program.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about overall goals that the project plans to achieve.

A situation that almost cause my Organization not meeting the deadline for the submission of an ongoing project at that time was that, we had assumed that the goods(input) to be distributed at the tail end of the program will be ready for distribution . Unfortunately, the ship that was to bring the goods sunk in the ocean and many stories developed from there like we have to pay afresh for us to get the goods we initially ordered for and so on.
We were only lucky enough to get the same goods purchased from our local market here but of cause was expensive. So if we had looked at the negative side effect of the assumption we made from the beginning, we will not have fallen into such situation.

So my take is that as their are positive assumptions, their are also negative once as well so to be on the safe side, we must plan for both in order to meet the over goal of the project.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about overall goals that the project plans to achieve.

A situation that almost cause my Organization not meeting the deadline for the submission of an ongoing project at that time was that, we had assumed that the goods(input) to be distributed at the tail end of the program will be ready for distribution. Unfortunately, the ship that was to bring the goods sunk in the ocean and many stories developed from there like we have to pay afresh for us to get the goods we initially ordered for and so on.
We were only lucky enough to get the same goods purchased from our local market here but of cause was expensive. So if we had looked at the negative side effect of the assumption we made from the beginning, we will not have fallen into such situation.
So my take is that as there are positive assumptions, there are also negative once as well so to be on the safe side, we must plan for both in order to meet the over goal of the project.

in order to identify risk and assumptions, its important to look at things strategically.
strategic way of reasoning ensure that one look out for the worst in the cause of implementing the project while at same time, making a holistic step to prevent these imaginary risk and assumption from occurring ahead of time.
thus, strategic reasoning or way of looking of things give us the opportunity to expect the worst, thereby giving us the opportunity to plan ahead and to make other alternatives in case of the unexpected and unplanned should occur.

How about connecting risks into the set of indicators of a weak planning and design of the project? The more you have risks, the lower your planning strategy and designing techniques? as a part of another evaluation and assessment of evaluation?;)

@RCPparticipant said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.
Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.
Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

Despite the best of planning, some unexpected events can affect the outcome, such as adverse weather conditions that prompt women to rush to cultivate their fields instead of participating in the planned project event.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about how local population would resolve the problem.

Thank you for sharing your ideas!

I Remember in my organization, we were to conducted sensitization on defender of religious cultural pluralism training for Media, the training schedule was for 10th of December, but invitation were sent 9th of December most of the stake holder we were expected did not turn up, some sent there representative which make us almost not to met the objective of the training because most the representative can not contribute much like the stake holder.

@apostledavid58 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I was once part of a LoveLife Ngo tram and we headed to rural communities to distribute condoms and pass on some sex-health information...we had roughly estimated a turn up of less that 100 participants and the local community hall. But to pur Suprise we had ran out of Flyers and condom packs to give away...

@apostledavid58 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I was once part of a LoveLife Ngo tram and we headed to rural communities to distribute condoms and pass on some sex-health information...we had roughly estimated a turn up of less that 100 participants and the local community hall. But to pur Suprise we had ran out of Flyers and condom packs to give away....

1 there could a possibility of the team given each participant more than one flyer and condom.
2 the participant can collect flyers and condoms more than once.
3 the organization should had make a research on the effective used of condom in the community

From the initial stage, it is very important to foresee expected or unexpected risks and assumptions. It needs analytical thinking to determine and estimate the weather of current or unexpected situation or condition. To avoid unpleasant results we should evaluate our target beneficiaries, current condition. to do this, first, we should conduct pre-assessment to identify and determine all risks that should be happened towards each stage (starting form activities till the impact). In the project's budget line must be some money or other necessary resources to reduce risks.
From this module, it is clear, designing the project's log frame in the right way, gives a chance to make a good M&E plan. To be on the right track.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about situation that might prevent the project activities from reaching it intended goal. this activities could be weather condition, political instability, culture, and social activities of our project beneficiaries and targeted communities.

A log-frame is the back born of any project any organization thinks about. Systematically out lays the flesh of the project and how well results can be reached. My organisation developed a pilot project for distributing food to severely affected populations in one community basically targeting women and elderly. All necessary arrangements were made and food delivered to the site but what my colleagues forgot that in that same community every one was vulnerable and the food was looted at night before reached the final beneficiaries. So in our daily work we have to estimate the unforeseeable likelihoods that may happen. Beneficiaries were already mobilized and the area cut off from network and as staffs reached the site it was bad news.

Am well equiped now

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the inputs and outcomes and what is likely going to be their shortcoming. For every success there is likelihood of failure and as such they must be factored in so they will not come up as a surprise during the implementation stage. Some environmental factors can be of great influence the outcome, such factors are not to be overlooked. Inasmuch some research results can be used to model a similar project in another geographical location, some environmental factors can destabilized the earlier established results, hence the need to factor in all environmental that can influence the outcome.

It is always important to outline the risks that are assumed to occur in any project to help prepare for any unforeseen circumstances or challenges. preparing for risks gives an organization enough time or plan B to have a back up plan should anything go wrong during the production or delivery of products.

In the organization that i work in there was once an encounter of a community strike next to the warehouse where the cooperatives produced school uniform, normally when something like this happens it disturbs and delays the production and delivery time of the school uniform which affects the beneficiaries and the cooperatives do not get paid in time.

But because the Department has acquired experience in this kind of unexpected encounters, they then created an additional warehouse where there is an extra group producing half of the total number of the uniform just in case, this has assisted a lot in terms of fastening the production period, the safety of the women in cooperatives and delivery men. It also helped the women in terms of their health issues, they used to be overworked but its better now. So preparation is always better than dealing with the after effects or consequences. Module+2+-+Logframe.pdf

@Tiga said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I always believe in stakeholder engagement when designing a project. By so doing you get a clear understanding of all the risks and assumptions which may affect all parties involved in the project.

In my organization while designing the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP) where we wanted to turn fresh graduates into job creators we assumed that fresh graduates had the entrepreneurial ability. The risk we faced is that some graduates did not want to be entrepreneurs, they preferred to be employed and however much we called them to join this project, their mind set was different.

It is good you eventually realised not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur i most likely would have assumed the same

@sphanor said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify Risks and Assumptions, it is helpful to think about _____________________________________
Since I have only been working at my current job for five months, without incidents, I must say, I will list a for instance scenario.
Before starting a project, there is a high probability of something going "sideways." Some of the many reasons for this happening is;

• A lack of organization

• Excessive compliance failure

• Complying with/ignoring new Regulations

• It is very important to be very clear from the beginning of a project what the expected objectives and outcomes will be, and to identify what specific changes are expected for what specific area (s).

• Start with and end with desired results, and include all team members involved with project.

i think outcomes are not your design they are the consequence or product of you input and output

While working on a survey in a certain geopolitical zone, my organisation wrongfully predicted the length of time the 2018 flood disaster in Nigeria would span. The team on getting to one of the assigned states met quite a good number of abandoned houses partially or fully submerged in water; the occupants had been displaced by the flood and this affected data collection greatly as some of these displaced occupants were already assigned to take part in the survey months before the flood started.
I learnt from this experience the importance of flexibility and feedback mechanism in projects formulation, reformulation and execution.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to:
• Examine key aspects of the beneficiary's culture and personal belives that may contravene the desired output or outcome.
•consider the possibility of geopolitical, socio-economic as well as natural factors that may adversely affect the input, output or outcome of the project.
•Look at similar past events implemented by the organisation and seek out risks and assumptions encountered.
•Carefully look at the project activities and list possible assumptions .

@jkurama said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

We hard a project to evaluate the influence of bribery to voters decision to vote a particular candidate. We went through all the approval processes, but in one of the districts, the district internal security officer even after meeting with him and the District police officer and all the district officials and all approved. After a few weeks of work he decided to withdraw his approval and chase us from the district. We went to other districts where were welcome but but he put announcements over the radio and called other security officers to chase us to.
After getting all the approvals we did not anticipate this, so we hard to recall our officers from the field and we hard fresh engagements with these officials and provided all the (un)necessary documentations that they wanted but the underlying issue was that he had engaged in bribing voters and he feared that he would be found out. we re-assured him that the information will be held in strict confidence and that we do not attache names in the data and we were allowed to continue with work.

Americares in Colombia is working with the population affected by the Venezuelan social crisis. Our target population for the Violence Prevention project of gender are migrant women (Venezuelan). We have identified two possible risks: the first has to do with the predisposition to the complaint and management of the case, because of their status as irregular migrants, the women fear to denounce this type of activities for fear of being deported. Secondly, the political condition of Venezuela, of having a change, possibly decreases the estimated number of women who would need this service in Colombian territory.

To identify risks and assumption it is helpful to think about the input, output,outcome and impact.it was end of month and we were suppose to send our end of month report but we had an issue collecting part of the report from the remaining reporting points we needed to get number of positive and negative HIV /AIDS clients but the results were not ready and it was just that day we had to submit,so we had to just assume some figures using the last report we had,but that affected the whole report for that month which also affected the impact, input,outcome and output.of the facilities report.so is very important to think of this things before tasking any risk and assumption.

To identify risks and assumption is one way to effect input, outcome and output.
It's is easier to identify the risks with stakeholders, volunteers and the team involved on the project.

During project implementation,the team realized that instead of nutritional status of children and mothers improving,there were reported increase in number of illnesses due to malnutrition.This got the team by surprise since the main goal of the project was to improve the nutritional status and subsequently reduce illness associated with malnutrition.

@apostledavid58 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

At that moment there wasn't much that we could do except offer apologies and promises of bringing more supplies. But we learnt from that and made sure that prior to every visit to any location in future before going there for programs implementation, sometimes depending on old data provided by your country's general statistics can prove fatal to the success of your programs implementation

@apostledavid58 Data inaccuracy assumption almost cause a fatal failure hence there is the need to avoid this kind of risk by assuring data reliability.....Also a vital lesson was learnt from that experience....a proper M&E process needful before final decision

I am currently working as a customer relations and my job is target oriented. We are as a team required to meet a certain number of target a month and this is largely dependent on the number of people applying to study with our institution. Sadly, we did not foresee the situation ahead and we planned to reach a target of 165 students that month.
Unfortunately we did not meet this target as there were very few applications that were made in that particular month and the exchange rate also affected the number of applicant to register for school. We did not foresee the economic and financial factors. I learnt that it is important to look at various factors that may disturb the set targets.

to identify risk and assumptions it is always best to think of the possible negative out come and the bias that may affect the project planning process and data collection

I once led a team to document an evaluation of or end of a project. The assumptions were more about the the number of days allotted to work. We feared that the time was not sufficient. But, while working we ended achieving the the target

An assumption can be a risk to a project if it did not come to pass. In one of our programs for drug abuse where we were sure that one of our counseling expert will be available, but he could not meet up the scheduled time due to heavy traffic that lasted for hours. What we did to address it was substitute him a close resource perdon who was close and he was still able to take his session the nexy day.

@SNIPPER said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@sphanor said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify Risks and Assumptions, it is helpful to think about _____________________________________
Since I have only been working at my current job for five months, without incidents, I must say, I will list a for instance scenario.
Before starting a project, there is a high probability of something going "sideways." Some of the many reasons for this happening is;

• A lack of organization

• Excessive compliance failure

• Complying with/ignoring new Regulations

• It is very important to be very clear from the beginning of a project what the expected objectives and outcomes will be, and to identify what specific changes are expected for what specific area (s).

• Start with and end with desired results, and include all team members involved with project.

i think outcomes are not your design they are the consequence or product of you input and output

Yes, outcomes are effects of your activities that are entirely out of your control. It can be either way.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to consider physical elements like the weather, how it can affect project activities. When we started the children's holiday club we did consider that the weather would affect our daily program. As a result when it rained and flooded the building we spent more time focusing on how to resolve the water problem. We didn't have a plan B so on that day children spent half the day playing rather than on the activities we had planned for the day.

@Tiga said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@Loraini said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredicted category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs. The project had to spend some money to unplanned activities to help these communities back on their feet.

Am still learning and want to understand more, do risks have to affect a project negatively? For instance what if you make assumptions which can help the project to save time and money. What will that be classified as?

@Loraini, Risk are things outside our control that might disrupt your project plans whilst assumption are your baises, meaning these are things you believe that might disrupt your project plans but you dont have enough evidence to substanciate it. Coming to your question that if risk affect a project negatively is YES. This is the main reason it best we try to identify most if not all so we can find the best way possible to mitigate them for the project to be successful. For the last question about making assumption that save the project time and money will still be classified as assumption. The essence to identify risk and assumption during the planing phase is to help the project team mitigate ways to so that the project complete successfully within scope and budget.

To identify risks and assumptions, I think it is important to think of the number of people you intend to reach out to, the resources that you are likely to have, your target population and the type of project you have.
This will then help you to adequately plan and see if the available resources are enough for the targeted population or if you have the right population targeted for your project.

@CabdiraxmanHayaan said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

It was in early this year 2019 when our project was starting at that time. we have discussed the overall scenarios of the risks and assumptions. The project's name is Hooyo Ku Hooyo in Somali which laterally means, mother to mother. A mother transferring health knowledge to another mother. It is about educating mothers of the reproductive age to the health benefits of having connected to the health centers. one study showed that more than 80% of the Somali mothers of the reproductive age and the pregnant and lactating mothers do not have the habit of going to the health facilities. SO in light of that. we have assumed the risks that may come ahead of the kick off of the project. To our surprise one the staff proposed that husbands may refuse their wives to listen or to accept the learning. So we all got shock, how dare a person whose wife taking knowledge is being refused by her husband. That was our.

@CabdiraxmanHayaan, Do you considered your colleague assumption? Do your encounter his/her assumption when implementing the project. Please share with us so we can learn from your experience.

@Loraini said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredicted category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs. The project had to spend some money to unplanned activities to help these communities back on their feet.

So is it okay to divert funds meant for other activities of the project to activities that were not originally part of the project at the planning stage?

How can i discover Risk in my project

How can i discover Risk in my project

To identify and manage risks, it is helpful to use a risk registry that will identify the risk event/s, the likelihood it will happen, and the severity of consequences to the project if it happens. Risk events with moderate to high likelihood and severity will need corresponding risk avoidance, transfer, mitigation measures to bring them down to a level that will not hurt the project. To identify assumptions, it is helpful to talk to as many stakeholders especially those who will articulate their doubts, criticisms, past experiences, and a different take of reality. Here, it is important to engage a cross-section of the project community according to sex, age groupings, ethnicity, geographical location, fields of expertise, etc.

To identify risk and assumptions, it is helpful to think about things that you don't have control over, for instance: Weather, death in the community you are working in and many more.
in one occasion we are heading off to an offshore island to conduct Disaster Ready Training, we arrived in the community just to find out that they is a funeral so we had to organize a last minute plan to do the training in another location so communication also is very important, the more we communicate, we get information earlier and act on it.

To identify and manage risks, use a risk registry that show all possible risk events, the likelihood that the event will happen, and the severity of consequences if it happens. Scoring for likelihood and severity can be used for easier risk assessment. Risk with the highest score will need risk avoidance, transfer, mitigation measures.

To identify assumptions, engage as many stakeholders as you can keeping in mind to get representatives from a cross- section based on sex, age groupings, ethnicity, religion, income brackets, geographical location, field expertise, etc.

We distributed chickens to household partners – only to find out later that most of the chickens died because of diseases they contracted in a poultry house that received all chicks from various suppliers across the country. The project lost money in the process and delayed the achievement of the output -- all because we did not carefully assessed the risks with experts (veterinarians), and we came from the wrong assumptions (the native chickens we procured were free of diseases or that they are resilient to stresses/shocks).

The organization had planned to conduct surveys. surprisingly, that time of colleecting data coincided with the electoral period and Government forbade any survey in the community except authorised political meetings

@apostledavid58 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I was once part of a LoveLife Ngo tram and we headed to rural communities to distribute condoms and pass on some sex-health information...we had roughly estimated a turn up of less that 100 participants and the local community hall. But to pur Suprise we had ran out of Flyers and condom packs to give away....

Ooh that was really disappointing but i suggest that in such cases you should always carry extra items.For example if your target turn-up is 100,you should atleast carry 150 flyers and 200 condoms in this case.

@ruhumuriza1 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

The organization had planned to conduct surveys. surprisingly, that time of colleecting data coincided with the electoral period and Government forbade any survey in the community except authorised political meetings

That was an abrupt situation but i think it would be better to plan for such meetings so that in case of any eventuality,there is room for postponement such that you don't lose resources.

@Tiga said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I always believe in stakeholder engagement when designing a project. By so doing you get a clear understanding of all the risks and assumptions which may affect all parties involved in the project.

In my organization while designing the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP) where we wanted to turn fresh graduates into job creators we assumed that fresh graduates had the entrepreneurial ability. The risk we faced is that some graduates did not want to be entrepreneurs, they preferred to be employed and however much we called them to join this project, their mind set was different.

My opinion would be that these fresh graduates sometimes need to be be educated on the benefits of being an enterptrenuer and the disadvantages of being employed.Peer education is necessary.

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.
Identifying risks and assumptions is a very critical aspect of the whole project design. Its difficulty will depend on the clarity of the project impact. The more logical and achievable impact, the easier task of assessing the risks and assumptions associated with it. While organizing a fundraiser event, we opted for an outdoor event and we assumed the weather would be sunny as such we did not plan for tents. Unfortunately it rained and we had to postpone the event. the lesson learnt is do not take any risk or assumption for granted. Factor all in your design to have better platform to measure the success of your project. To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think what logical ripple effect you would wish for from investing in the inputs and outputs.
Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

@Orikurungi said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@Tiga said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I always believe in stakeholder engagement when designing a project. By so doing you get a clear understanding of all the risks and assumptions which may affect all parties involved in the project.

In my organization while designing the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP) where we wanted to turn fresh graduates into job creators we assumed that fresh graduates had the entrepreneurial ability. The risk we faced is that some graduates did not want to be entrepreneurs, they preferred to be employed and however much we called them to join this project, their mind set was different.

My opinion would be that these fresh graduates sometimes need to be be educated on the benefits of being an enterptrenuer and the disadvantages of being employed.Peer education is necessary.

That is a very good idea. stakeholders involvement might shed light on other risks that might not have considered by you or they may express their expectations with more clarity for better planning at the initial stage.

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

Risks and assumptions are important factor to consider when designing a project so that when project go wrong you will have factor identified early. In my project of helping youth who are out of formal education do identify their employment pathway (Their dream work), Donner delayed to release fund for phase 3, while all activities was running this led the community to have lack faith with our organization.

In our quest to reduce poverty and food insecurity in the rural households, my organisation works to establish group owned rural irrigation schemes. We planned for one of the projects and engaged the primary stakeholders(rural farmers) among others. However, at the time of implementation, the traditional chief of the beneficiaries indicated that he would remove his endorsement of the project since we only notified him and had not followed the proper channels of notifying the traditional chief hence our action warranted a "fine". We had not anticipated that there could be fines emanating from development activities which would benefit the people led by the chief in question. We ended up forgoing some small activities to recover the financing that had gone into meeting the fine charged by the local chief.

Monitoring should also look for unanticipated changes with the project/ programme and its context, including any changes in project/programme assumptions/risks; this information should be used to adjust project/programme implementation plans.

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is difficult but important as it will allow to device alternative measures that might be useful when a risk or assumption takes place. We once organised a workshop assuming that that four of our trusted resource persons who were providing their services would attend only for a few two of them managing to do so. Fortunately we had made alternative arrangements for part of our staff to step in in the event of such a happening.

@Umar007 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

While deciding on risk and assumptions it is important to think about all the negatives that come to mind

Hey @Umar007, I agree with you. normally, identification risks and Assumptions could allow you to create a comprehensive understanding that can be used to influence stakeholders and create better project decisions..

@Dmegastar said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

@apostledavid58 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

At that moment there wasn't much that we could do except offer apologies and promises of bringing more supplies. But we learnt from that and made sure that prior to every visit to any location in future before going there for programs implementation, sometimes depending on old data provided by your country's general statistics can prove fatal to the success of your programs implementation

@apostledavid58 Data inaccuracy assumption almost cause a fatal failure hence there is the need to avoid this kind of risk by assuring data reliability.....Also a vital lesson was learnt from that experience....a proper M&E process needful before final decision

I agree with you@Dmegastar, you Know that Data are informations that we collect about our project for decision making. That's why data must be accurate, and reliable in all its life cycle..

@frutehenda said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Monitoring should also look for unanticipated changes with the project/ programme and its context, including any changes in project/programme assumptions/risks; this information should be used to adjust project/programme implementation plans.

Yes @frutehenda, risks and assumptions, could be used also to avoid surprise during the implementation of your project.

It is always good to define risks and assumption in planning a project to mitigate failures.
I was once part of a team to carryout expansion for of a rural telephony project.While we were planning for the project,we didn't give consideration for additional power(Breaker) for the expansion.On getting to site,we discovered that the boards to be added needed additional power for the expansion to be successful.This experience taught me two things;
1.Never to assume but to always carry out proper analysis(risk and assumption) before project execution.
2.Risk and assumption analysis is an important component in the planning process in mitigating failures.

@LawalGodwin said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

How can i discover Risk in my project

Hey @LawalGodwin, thanks a lot for your question. In order to discover risks and assumptions, you need first of all to get a team of stakeholders together to identify risks, because it's not a job of one person. So it's highly recommended to identify them at the beginning of your projects and at a regular basis through the life of your project, such as weekly. You know failed to identify risks and assumptions in advance, you risk your team to spend their time on things that do not matter

@Tavengwa said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, I think it is important to think of the number of people you intend to reach out to, the resources that you are likely to have, your target population and the type of project you have.
This will then help you to adequately plan and see if the available resources are enough for the targeted population or if you have the right population targeted for your project.

After each project, you need to conduct a review with your stakeholders where you can capture the most significant risks and then make a checklist of that for the future reference..

It is very important to identify risks and ssumptions in the planning phase of project design.
In my last concluded project to roll out a new contraceptive in a State in Nigeria, the Launching of the programme would require the commissioner for health, Directors in the Ministry of Health and Primary Health care board as well as Family Planning supervisors to be in attendance.

It was assumed that due to the soon hand over in the state, the commissioner might be absent from the meeting. This was planned for as we ensured all other important stakeholders were well informed and got their approval/consent to attend the meeting.

On the day of the launch, the commissioner was absent but was ably represented by other decision makers in the Ministry of Health.

I think Risk and assumptions is a critical part, which can lead to unsuccessfull Project, because we never know what can outcome and create an obstacle to our Goal achievement, we have to deal with it and drawn a plan if that will be a barrier.
As an example: In Mozambique we will have in October elections for a President, normally at elections time the Donors are suspicious about the results and therefore they are extra cautious by Funds releasing.

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the worst scenario for each step of our logframe. I do not have direct experience of project design, but I know that in my organization one of the most important risk to take into consideration is the relationship with Governments. Each Gov has its own internal procedures for ratifying the agreements and giving officials permissions to start the projects. Often the very slow political processes of the Governments or the fragility of their State made the whole project having being delays.

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

To identify risk and assumptions it's important to understand the intention of possible and all stakeholders that could be involved in the project.

risks and assumptions are essentials tools in monitoring and evaluation, because they help us to think twice and all possible ways which can stop our project to reach the planned target.

through this modules i have learnt more for sure, and i am very happy( i am not working in any organization, i may share you my experience about this module 2)

thanks a lots.

@linnhtinhla77 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Yes I agreed that, the important to identification of risk and assumptions, almost of peoples forget to consider about external risks and assumption on project because when developing preparation of project they are more consider about to success and meet the project objectives

@LINNHTINHLA77From the course readings, I find that carrying out formative research is extremely important as it will help us ti identify as many of these risks and assumptions as possible. Colleagues have mentioned elsewhere of the need to make this process participatory since the stakeholders usually know how to mitigate a number of these risks.

Identifying a risk calls for identifying how to mitigate the same. Risk analysis + mitigation leads to the making assumptions. So what can be done to reduce the severity of the risk? As humans, we might not be able to holistically scan the environment and correctly identify those external factors/circumstances that might befall the project.

I belief I need to prepare and include a budget for mitigating the risks.

there was a time we had to visit one of the IDP camps with my team to see if the use one of our product or the insurgency has made them change thier choice of meal. we took only 200kg so that we would branch other stores after the visit. to our greatest surprise most of the families had complain that they needed change in meal especialy our type of product. we were forced to do am emergency services yo them because of the situation at hand

Hello dear learner @asimao I really appreciate your understanding and agreed with you... just with a little further explanation. If we carefully measured and planned the expected risk or likelihood that might be possible to happen, thus we always create an open space in our planning for such risk to deal with. Which will not only increase the smooth running of a project but will lead towards success. The sample is that we should always design the project with alternatives and should not be stuck with pre-decided steps. Best wishes for your study...

Risks are events that may or may not occur (uncertain events). When they occur and are positive, are called opportunities, but when negative, are called threats. It is important to note that risk management is a continuous process throughout the project.To identify risk and assumptions, it is helpful to think about risk holistically. Risk definition, identification, qualitative and quantitative risk analyses, risk response planning and control is key. A major source of risk on a project is stakeholders. Therefore, stakeholder identification and analysis should be carried out to understand their level of power, influence, interest, and impact.
In my organization, lack of commitment or no buy-in from stakeholders was a big risk. However, having known their level of impact, influence, interest and power, we pleaded with the Influential and powerful to convince their peers to support and show commitment to the project. It worked and it was a success.

Bluesky, I agree with you. One should be proactive and not reactive. Risk should be qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed, and risk responses planned for. It is only when you know the probability of occurrence and impact that one can come up with a budget (contingency) to mitigate the risk.

@Tope_Olubodun said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

It is very important to identify risks and ssumptions in the planning phase of project design.
In my last concluded project to roll out a new contraceptive in a State in Nigeria, the Launching of the programme would require the commissioner for health, Directors in the Ministry of Health and Primary Health care board as well as Family Planning supervisors to be in attendance.

It was assumed that due to the soon hand over in the state, the commissioner might be absent from the meeting. This was planned for as we ensured all other important stakeholders were well informed and got their approval/consent to attend the meeting.

On the day of the launch, the commissioner was absent but was ably represented by other decision makers in the Ministry of Health.

@Tope_Olubodun That shows that the processes in project management are interwoven and intertwined. You carried out stakeholders and risk management simultaneously.

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about

I once worked for an organisation that was trying to increases her customer base through massive marketing, I remember suggesting that we ran radio jingles for a few days in other to get people to sign up fast. Unfortunately we got few calls and not one person signed up after three days on air. Although during my research I also suggested a live show which we decided to delete and that I think may have influenced more listeners to believe 'us' to more human than just recorded voices, hence we may have been able to gain their trust easily.

I think that Risks are Factors which are outside of your control that could cause your project to go poorly. These can be mitigated, or can cause suffering to your project

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

As the project we are currently doing in our organization is very time sensitive, we planned around the risk that there will be one week were things might be put to a stand still because of the the elections. However we did not foresee that the effects of the election will spill into the following week as result were not announced in time.

I was an executive director of youth development organisation called Somali Youth Alliance Forum and we orgninsed to collect garbage to the villagers ..we have roughly estimated 100 residents to the villagers . But to our Suprise we have not had enough vehicles.

I was an educational team leader called YDO in a local community we have started to make awarnes in FGM women in about 200 young girls victimised FGM but an verginaly their parents are willing to take part awarnes.

Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what if the project is not successful or delayed or is not going as planned. So, before the result may falter due to a missing component, I believe to think of each step necessary for our success.

Identification of risks and assumptions help to iron out the issues that might come up in the future to affects the project. It is advisable to come up with some risks and assumptions before starting the project. I want to give a scenario of my organization. My organization is implementing child protection program in one of the South Sudan rural communities. We distributed nonfoods items to children with protection concerns and referred them to another organization for educational support it happened one day that the organization concerns did not support the children and that make us feels like we are not doing to expectations. How do u advice me ?

Sometimes we need to involve these husbands also.Sometimes cultural beliefs hinder these people from cooperating but in this case when men are also involved it might change the attitudes that may follow.

@Tiga said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

I always believe in stakeholder engagement when designing a project. By so doing you get a clear understanding of all the risks and assumptions which may affect all parties involved in the project.

In my organization while designing the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP) where we wanted to turn fresh graduates into job creators we assumed that fresh graduates had the entrepreneurial ability. The risk we faced is that some graduates did not want to be entrepreneurs, they preferred to be employed and however much we called them to join this project, their mind set was different.

One of the issues to address will be to disabuse the mindsets of the fresh graduates and to appreciate becoming entrepreneurs

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what facets can affect the final impact of the project. It will mean looking at elements , experiences and factors that will have an influence on input, output,outcome and impact. Feedback from stakeholders and beneficiaries should be taken into consideration as they can be able to point out factors that the project team can not perceive. This will ensure an effective mitigation plan and thus give a cushioning of high probability of the project objectives being met. In the adult literacy project that we had our estimate for project implementation was 8000 women, but got application of 10,000 women. We were not expecting the same but due to savings realized in subsidized workshop rent we were able to accommodate the extra 2,000.

The best way to identify risks and assumption in projects is involving all the stakeholders involved in the project which includ head of units/depertment and external partners to identify all possible risks they might face in the future on the project and to advice the best way to mitigate such risk.

There was a situation we traveled with a machine to the field and the machine broke down and it took us days to be able to fixed the machine back beacuse we did not traveled with any engineer and we didn't even expect such to happened.

To identify risks & assumptions it is helpful to think about all possible scenarios and how they could impact the project, whether positively or negatively.
There is a time that we organized a youth career fair which aimed at availing career guidance & information for the youth and charged a small fee to cater for the refreshment of the participants. We had done a lot of publicizing and on the event day the turn up was very high, with quite a number unaware/unable to pay for the fee. We had to allow them join & be part of the forum.
This implicated on our initial plan. Fortunately, we were able to still serve them all thanks to the patners who were on board.

@linnhtinhla77 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Yes I agreed that, the important to identification of risk and assumptions, almost of peoples forget to consider about external risks and assumption on project because when developing preparation of project they are more consider about to success and meet the project objectives

@linnhtinhla77 You are so right, external risks are often forgoten by project supervisors and it always have a stronge effect on project.

Executing a project is never without its challenges; so we learned when my organization launched the ALHN (Project 500) where we intended to onboard healthcare facilities on a EMR. Being that we were offering the software free with other benefits, we assumed that acceptance and adoption would be easy, because we knew from research that the huge financial cost was a burden for most healthcare facilities that prevented the adoption of technology.
To our surprise, it turns out that most facilities where stuck to their old way of doing things. They were skeptical of our 'free' offering(s) and decided that their use of paper in keeping patients record was well suited for them.
We then had to restrategize our engagement, invite key stakeholders who we knew would be an influence and present the package in a different way.

I once worked in a project aimed at providing clean water to the members of the community. The problem identified was that some people walk long distances to get clean water and the project decided to build water pumps closer to the village. The assumption was that with the water pumps closer the women would save time, and use that time to do other things. what happen was that some women continued to go to the further place to fetch water besides having the water pumps closer. when asked why they do that, the answer was that they preferred to go to the further place because they go in groups and use the time to socialize with other women, they chat and get along. So this shows how important is to identify the assumptions and risks to avoid biase. The project took for granted that those women needed water closer but It did not foresee the fact that the women also needed time to be with each other. If that had been thought about, maybe the project should have included other activities to give the space for women to be together and talk about their issues such as workshops and other things

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of a project design. This is majorly due to the fact that you cannot foresee all project risk during the planning stage. Some project risks arise during the implementation phase. I experienced this last year. We planted tomatoes in our 10 acre farm in the second week of October as we does. The assumption was that the rains would start the first week of November as usual. Unfortunately, the rains delayed up to the last week of November. As a result we exhausted all the water reserves we had in the first week of November. Without a plan to mitigate this unforeseen risk, all the plants dried up. What I learned from this incidence is that a project should spare some funds to mitigate unforeseen risks during the planning stage. Again, it is important to remain flexible as this will help to manage arising risks during project implementation. One important tip for identifying risks and assumptions is to scan your project's environment when designing the project. This will help to identify external risks to your project.