Risk Up Front: Managing Projects in a Complex World

by Adam Josephs

We see in this example specific failures of accountability, transparency, integrity, and commitment. Here’s another question to think about. Who is accountable on this project for ensuring these failures are actually rectified? Who cares that these elements are missing? You? Jackie? Pramila? Ichiko? The engineer from QA who wasn’t in the room? The fact is, if you don’t have the organizational structures and practices that establish these issues front and center before the team on day one, it doesn’t matter, because these issues will land squarely in their blind spot. That is why structure is so important and why Risk Up Front is so opinionated that certain structures and practices must be established on your project from the very beginning. Then as the project unfolds, these structures and practices must be maintained with the utmost rigor, because breakdowns of accountability, transparency, integrity, and commitment that may jeopardize your project can occur in any part of your project at any time.