Big projects (> 1 Million) have too many unknowns. The secret in managing Big projects is to be proactive about knowing what your unknowns are and planning  enough room for managing the unknowns. This is the biggest challenge.

Passive management on big projects is a guaranteed recipe for failure.

In the internet startup business this philosophy doesn’t have too many followers. The idea there is to let the business grow organically and let the project be managed based on the demands. Twitter is a good example of that where a concept grew organically very fast and the team behind it had to scale the systems based on the demand.

A canadian company http://localads.org is planning to do the same thing by organically growing a unique concept and taking on the classifieds industry.

How far the concept will be accepted is something to be seen.

 Some experts have said that a strong risk management process can decrease problems on a project by as much as 80 or 90 percent. In combination with solid project management practices–having a well-defined scope, incorporating input from the appropriate stakeholders, following a good change management process, and keeping open the lines of communication–a good risk management process is critical in cutting down on surprises, or unexpected project risks. Such a process can also help with problem resolution when changes occur, because now those changes are anticipated and actions have already been reviewed and approved, avoiding knee jerk reactions.

Read further on this CIO article – Project Risk Management – Practical and Effective Approach 

This is a process of determining which risks might affect the project (an example of an asset) and documenting their characteristics.

Risk Identification is an iterative process, involving the project team, management team, stakeholders and subject matter experts (if required).

Risk Identification process is a part of “Project Planning Phase”.