Episode 123 – Next-Generation Project Risk Management

The podcast by project managers for project managers. For project managers who are ready to up their game with risk management, Prasad Kodukula clarifies Next-Generation Project Risk Management and talks us through six specific risk response tools that will help you manage risks more effectively.



Table of Contents



02:03 … Meet Prasad03:19 … Next Generation Project Risk Management09:12 … Tool 1: Ambiguity Risks12:49 … Tool 2: Emergent Risks14:07 … Dealing with Unknown Unknowns18:40 … Tool 3: Opportunities23:07 … Tool 4: Integration of Cost and Schedule Risks24:34 … Communicating Risks to Upper Management28:59 … Tool 5: Adaptive Technique – Iterative and Incremental methods32:02 … Tool 6: Risk Response Strategies35:14 … Get in Touch with Prasad35:44 … Closing



Prasad Kodukula:  We’ve got to break down those silos so that we can communicate more freely, more quickly across different functions because when we are talking about resiliency, we want to make sure that we could put together a cross-functional team very quickly that could work cohesively together.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Listeners you can still claim your free PDUs.  The steps to submit a PDU for our podcast, as well as for our InSite courses to PMI, has changed.  Our PDU claim page has been updated with the new instructions.  Make sure not to use the autofill, but type in “Velociteach” and the title when you are submitting your PDUs.  We do apologize for the inconvenience.



I am Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill Yates. 



Bill, today we’re talking with Prasad Kodukula.  He is a PMI Fellow, a PMI advisor, thought leader, coach, author, and entrepreneur with more than 35 years of experience.



BILL YATES:  Yeah, I think people will quickly figure out Prasad is an overachiever.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Absolutely.



BILL YATES:  He’s taken three big awards with PMI:  the 2010 Distinguished Contribution Award, the 2016 Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence Award, the 2020 PMI Fellow Award.  So this guy is very well decorated.



WENDY GROUNDS:  He is also a self-proclaimed global ambassador of project management.  He’s spoken on project management and innovation leadership in nearly 50 countries, and I enjoy talking to him about South Africa.  He goes there quite often.  Unfortunately, with COVID, he hasn’t been able to get there.



BILL YATES:  Yes.



WENDY GROUNDS:  But we were able to talk a little bit about South Africa, which was really cool.



BILL YATES:  Talk about home.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah.



BILL YATES:  Yeah.  So Prasad is going to talk with us today about one of the topics that’s of keen interest to him and certainly to us.  He’s going to look at risk management and describe six next-generation tools for risk management.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Prasad.  Thank you so much for joining us.



PRASAD KODUKULA:  Hello, Wendy.  Thank you for having me.



Meet Prasad



WENDY GROUNDS:  Prasad, with a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, you obviously did not set out in your career intending to become a project manager.  How did you discover that this was the path for you?



PRASAD KODUKULA:  Well, that’s an interesting question.  You are right, Wendy.  I did not start to make a project manager in my career.  And it happens with a lot of people.  It happened to me by accident.  So I call myself an “accidental project manager.”  So I started as an R&D engineer, and within two or three years they asked me to manage projects.  I didn’t know anything about it.  I said sure.  Sounded like a pretty good idea, sounded like a nice title to have, so I became a project manager by sheer accident.



BILL YATES:  That’s hilarious because, you know, you think, okay, here’s Prasad, an accidental project manager, which you’ve won three amazing awards with PMI.  You’re a PMI Fellow, which is really the feather on the top of the cap.  That’s an amazing award.