A structured approach to risk identification for projects in a research environment

It has been noticed that one of the main problems with R&D projects is the high amounts of risk. Standard risk management practices have historically proven to be inadequate in R&D project where not all aspects of the project are known. The problem with the risk management process is not the management of the risks but the lack of identification of risks. Standard risk identification techniques such as brainstorming make use of the diversity and experience of large groups of participants but in research and development projects the project teams are generally made up of small teams who are specialised in one field. This lack of diversity and few numbers causes general risk identification techniques to fail in identifying all possible risks. A structured brainstorming risk identification method was developed for use in R&D projects in order to lead the project teams in the identification process to identify more risks and increase the effectiveness of the risk management process.