A Project Portfolio Risk-Opportunity Identification Framework

Abstract

This article introduces a framework to identify risks and opportunities during portfolio risk management that helps to decrease the uncertainty of achieving the strategic goals of the organization. The final output of the framework is a portfolio risk‐opportunity register, which highlights the potential events that could impact the achievement of the goals. An illustrative example of how risk‐opportunity identification can be conducted within this framework is also exposed. In spite of being theoretical in nature, the model contributes to the risk management domain applied specifically to project portfolio management, opening the possibility of further research for its verification.

Project portfolios in dynamic environments: Organizing for uncertainty

“…The sub-processes build on knowledge and techniques which have been developed for project management such as probability/impact assessment and the development of risk response plans. Similar models have also been proposed by Sanchez, Robert, and Pellerin (2008).…”

Shedding New Light on Project Portfolio Risk Management

“…Olson indicated significant differences between risk management at the project level and risk management at the project portfolio level [7]. In turn, Sanchez presented a theoretical model describing risk management at the project portfolio level [9,21]. As previously mentioned, studies discussing project portfolio risk management issues empirically are currently being published.…”

“…Available studies discuss this subject both from a theoretical [45][46][47] and empirical point of view [48]. The second significant aspect of risk management involves the consideration of risk as an event that not only generates hazards, but also reveals opportunities that may be taken by the organisation [5,9,12]. In this paper, emphasis is placed on the potential negative effects of risk occurrence on project portfolio success.…”

“…The particular project portfolio risks were selected and named through the course of the literature review [5][6][7]9,13,14,[16][17][18]23,30,33,[40][41][42]56,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. Every identified risk was defined, described, and placed into one of the component, structural, or overall risk categories.…”

“…Available studies unambiguously indicate the significant limitations of traditional risk management, i.e., it is oriented towards individual risk management projects in a multi-project environment [5][6][7]. Based on the work of Markowitz [8], a portfolio may be described as a set of projects that, when managed together, allow for the maximisation of their expected values at the assumed risk level [9] (p. 97). Therefore, the literature indicates that portfolio risk management constitutes a much wider issue than the management of an individual project risk [10] and requires a holistic approach [7,11].…”