Risk in the digital projects space
Digital projects are typically sizeable in terms of the investment made, the number of people involved, and the amount of time devoted to them. This naturally brings a significant element of risk for a business.
An example of such a risk is shifting staff onto a new digital project, and this having the consequence of other elements of the business being neglected due to resources being spread too thinly.
A digital project may also bring together disparate teams with little experience of collaborating with one another. External partners may also need to be coordinated with. Both of these require time and staff commitment, which again, can mean that other aspects of the business may suffer.
Plenty of different factors can impact the chances of a project running to schedule, being carried out smoothly in terms of governance between internal teams and external partners and sticking to the original budget. Despite this, taking steps to remove the logistical and digital risk associated with achieving a project’s key aims is all too often overlooked.
The most important aspect of de-risking therefore is that it gives your project the best chance of achieving its ultimate goals.
How to include de-risking in a digital project
In our opinion, de-risking should be factored in throughout your digital project – from the initial discovery and planning phase, through to completion. Having a clear de-risking strategy from the start gives organisations and suppliers the best chance of achieving their expectations.
It may sound obvious, but a central part of this is being able to identify what risk a project poses. This groundwork should take place as early as possible, as this will help ensure ways to mitigate risk are identified from the beginning. By including de-risking in your planning phase, it becomes a central aspect of your wider project.
Another reason for including de-risking is it allows project teams to make contingency plans should elements of the project change, i.e. the project takes longer than expected. Introducing solid governance and the right tools around the budget for example can enable suitable preparations to be made for certain scenarios. This helps remove the risk associated with internal staff or external partners being caught out and not in a position to support the project’s progression.
Incorporating technology that has been tried and tested, and which offers both reliability and flexibility, is also an important element of de-risking a digital project. Not having that level of technological trust naturally brings an element of risk to any project.
Embedding certain key components into working methods, such as sustainable web development and accessibility , is another way to de-risk a project. This allows for these important elements to be included from the get-go, and not have to be implemented later in a project, creating risk in the process.
Additionally, having a good testing regime is pivotal to de-risking a project. This involves having key testing processes at selected points over a project’s lifespan. These testing processes give you a clear indication of whether you are moving in the right direction or not. If things are not going as planned, this testing gives you the chance to ‘course correct’ as needed, which in turn, removes risk from the project.
De-risking the Un.titled way
We believe de-risking is really important. When engaging with digital projects, we place more emphasis on it than some other agencies might. We do this to help ensure good governance and a clear working method around de-risking is in place throughout a project’s lifespan.
We do this in a number of ways. One is by having a substantial discovery process. Oftentimes, clients think discovery is all about learning about users, laying down objectives, mapping user journeys, completing wireframing, and getting a grip on UX and UI. And, of course, it does involve all those things. But the discovery phase is equally important for us because this is where de-risking starts.
We use discovery to create a detailed project plan with our clients, outlining what tasks are going to be done by what resources, and what the dependencies are between those tasks. We also work to develop a firm grip on the budget and how that is allocated, as well as establishing clear plans for how extensions to a project will work should they be required.
Discovery also allows us to understand how the vision and goals of the client will play out through a project in reality. We can then make budget, time and resource alterations accordingly, which removes potential risk down the line.
Speaking with key stakeholders is also highly important during the discovery phase. This is not just a case of speaking to the project team, but also talking with external partners such as ticketing vendors or ecommerce platforms, for example. We have established good relationships over the years with many of the external partners our clients are keen to engage with, which makes having important conversations with these partners all the easier.
We also look to speak with internal teams who may not have a direct involvement with the project but are tangentially affected by it. An example might be speaking with a finance team who will handle revenue from a new digital ecommerce channel. We look to understand how our project will affect them and aim to mitigate any potential risk here as well.
As mentioned previously, the choice of technologies we use is central to de-risking a project. Suggesting and encouraging clients to choose technologies that are reliable and secure helps remove risk. Because of its transparency, community engagement, and cost-effectiveness, open-source software - such as Drupal and WordPress - can be more secure than proprietary software. Having been tried and tested for 20+ years, security and data protection is built into them.
Need help de-risking your project?
De-risking is important for all digital projects. But for larger projects with higher budgets, more staff involvement, more technology, more resources, more time and more complexity, the element of risk only increases.
We appreciate and understand the importance of de-risking a digital project for clients and have a strong framework through which we achieve this.
If you’re looking to start a digital project, we can help you manage risk to maximise success.
