HKSM

Strategies for opportunities are planned responses to positive risks that aim to realize or increase potential benefits. Common choices include exploit, enhance, share, accept, and escalate, selected based on feasibility, ownership, and value.

Key Points

• Positive risk responses aim to increase the probability and/or impact of beneficial events or ensure the benefit is realized.
• Common strategies include exploit, enhance, share, accept, and escalate.
• Choose a strategy based on expected value, feasibility, authority, cost, and alignment with objectives and risk appetite.
• Document chosen responses, owners, triggers, and actions in the risk register and integrate them into project plans.
• Some responses can create secondary risks or opportunities, which should be analyzed and monitored.
• Escalate when the opportunity is outside the project manager’s control or better handled at a higher level.

Purpose of Analysis

• Identify the most effective way to capture or amplify the benefit of an opportunity.
• Prioritize opportunities by value and feasibility to focus effort and budget where ROI is highest.
• Match each opportunity with a suitable strategy and accountable owner.
• Ensure responses are practical, authorized, and aligned with organizational strategy and risk appetite.

Method Steps

• Compile and clarify identified opportunities with clear risk statements, causes, and effects.
• Perform qualitative analysis to assess probability, impact, timing, and manageability; prioritize high-exposure items.
• Use quantitative analysis when warranted to estimate expected monetary value or schedule benefit.
• Confirm ownership and authority level; consider the need to escalate beyond the project.
• Evaluate exploit, enhance, share, accept, and escalate options for top opportunities using cost-benefit and constraint checks.
• Select the strategy, define actions, triggers, success criteria, owner, due dates, and required resources.
• Integrate actions into schedule, budget, procurement, and communications; create reserves or agreements as needed.
• Obtain approvals, update baselines if required, and communicate decisions to stakeholders.
• Monitor triggers and benefits, review effectiveness, and adapt strategies as conditions change.

Inputs Needed

• Risk register and risk report with identified opportunities and analysis results.
• Project charter, scope, schedule, cost estimates, and constraints.
• Business case, benefits management plan, and organizational strategy.
• Risk appetite statements, policies, and governance guidelines.
• Stakeholder register, resource availability, and capability assessments.
• Market data, vendor capabilities, and legal/compliance requirements for partnerships.

Outputs Produced

• Updated risk register entries with chosen strategy, actions, owners, triggers, and due dates.
• Risk response plans integrated into schedule, budget, and communications plans.
• Change requests and updates to baselines and management plans, as needed.
• Procurement documents and agreements for sharing or exploiting opportunities with external parties.
• Adjusted reserves and funding authorizations linked to opportunity responses.
• Updates to the risk report, assumptions log, and lessons learned.

Interpretation Tips

• Exploit when the opportunity is highly probable and high value, and you can ensure it happens.
• Enhance when you can influence key drivers to raise probability or impact, such as adding resources or training.
• Share when a partner has unique capabilities needed to capture the benefit; align incentives via contracts.
• Accept when the cost or complexity of action outweighs the expected benefit; track with triggers.
• Escalate when the opportunity’s scope or authority exceeds the project’s boundaries.
• Define measurable success criteria and monitor benefit realization, not just completion of actions.

Example

A team identifies an opportunity to reduce testing time by 30% using a new automation tool.

• Exploit: Pilot the tool immediately using an existing enterprise license and adjust the schedule to front-load adoption.
• Enhance: Fund training and create reusable test libraries to increase the chance of achieving the full 30% reduction.
• Share: Partner with the tool vendor to co-develop connectors, with a contract tying license discounts to realized time savings.
• Accept: Track the opportunity without action because funding is unavailable this quarter; revisit at the next release.
• Escalate: Propose an enterprise-level rollout to the PMO because benefits extend across multiple projects.

Pitfalls

• Choosing exploit or share without confirming authority, budget, or organizational readiness.
• Underestimating integration, transition, or partnership costs that erode the expected benefit.
• Failing to update baselines and procurement documents, leading to misalignment and delays.
• Confusing opportunities with gold plating and adding scope that is not tied to objectives.
• Ignoring legal, compliance, or IP concerns when sharing with external partners.
• Not tracking triggers and benefit realization, resulting in missed or unproven gains.

PMP Example Question

A team identifies an opportunity to improve forecast accuracy by 25% if they can use a partner’s proprietary dataset. What is the most appropriate response strategy?

1. Enhance by assigning more internal analysts to refine the current model.
2. Share by partnering with the data provider under a mutually beneficial agreement.
3. Exploit by mandating immediate use of the dataset without formal arrangements.
4. Accept and proceed with the current approach without action.

Correct Answer: B — Share by partnering with the data provider under a mutually beneficial agreement.

Explanation: Sharing assigns ownership to a party best able to capture the opportunity and aligns incentives via a partnership. Exploit is unsuitable because access depends on an external provider and requires formal arrangements.