HKSM
Risk Mitigation
A key step in risk management where the team designs and chooses a suitable response to a risk, aiming to reduce its likelihood, its impact, or both.
Key Points
- Focuses on lowering a risk's probability and/or impact, not eliminating all uncertainty.
- Involves selecting and planning concrete actions (e.g., spikes, tests, redundancy, training).
- Actions are documented in the risk response plan and tracked in the risk register with owners and dates.
- Results are monitored; residual and secondary risks are identified and managed.
Example
An agile team foresees a risk that a new encryption library could slow response times. They mitigate the risk by scheduling an early technical spike, adding automated performance tests to the CI pipeline, and setting a performance budget for each story. This reduces the chance and impact of performance degradation.
PMP Example Question
Which action best illustrates risk mitigation for a high-likelihood performance risk on an agile project?
- Set aside extra funds to cover potential rework if the risk occurs.
- Add early performance testing, run a spike to validate the approach, and optimize code paths.
- Purchase insurance to cover financial losses if the system performs poorly.
- Cancel the feature that might cause performance issues.
Correct Answer: B — Proactive steps to reduce the risk's likelihood and impact
Explanation: Mitigation reduces probability and/or impact through preventive actions (e.g., tests, spikes, optimization). Reserve funding is acceptance, insurance is transfer, and canceling the feature is avoidance.
