Risk Response Strategies for Opportunities
Risk response strategies for opportunities are the five approaches used to address positive risks: exploit, enhance, share, accept, and escalate. Each strategy aims to increase the probability, impact, or both of a beneficial risk event.
Explanation
Positive risks (opportunities) represent potential benefits to the project. Just as threats require response strategies to reduce negative effects, opportunities require strategies to capture or amplify positive effects.
Exploit ensures the opportunity is realized by eliminating uncertainty. Enhance increases the probability or impact of the opportunity. Share allocates ownership to a third party best positioned to capture the benefit. Accept acknowledges the opportunity without actively pursuing it. Escalate moves the opportunity to a higher organizational level when it exceeds the project's scope.
Project managers should actively manage opportunities, not just threats. Many organizations focus heavily on threat management while neglecting opportunity management, which can result in missed benefits. The selected strategy should be proportional to the opportunity's potential value and aligned with stakeholder objectives.
Key Points
- •Five strategies: Exploit, Enhance, Share, Accept, Escalate
- •Exploit ensures the opportunity is realized; Enhance increases its probability or impact
- •Share allocates ownership to a capable third party
- •Accept and Escalate apply to both threats and opportunities
Exam Tip
Know the opportunity strategy equivalents of threat strategies: Exploit mirrors Avoid, Enhance mirrors Mitigate, Share mirrors Transfer. Accept and Escalate are the same for both.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Topics
Exploit (Opportunity Strategy)
Exploit is an opportunity response strategy that ensures the positive risk is realized by eliminating the uncertainty associated with the opportunity. It is the most aggressive opportunity strategy.
Enhance (Opportunity Strategy)
Enhance is an opportunity response strategy that increases the probability and/or positive impact of an opportunity. Unlike exploit, it does not guarantee the opportunity will occur.
Share (Opportunity Strategy)
Share is an opportunity response strategy that allocates ownership of an opportunity to a third party who is best able to capture the benefit for the project. It is the opportunity equivalent of the threat strategy "transfer."
Plan Risk Responses
Plan Risk Responses is the process of developing options, selecting strategies, and agreeing on actions to address overall project risk exposure and to treat individual project risks.
Risk Response Strategies for Threats
Risk response strategies for threats are the five approaches available to address negative risks: avoid, mitigate, transfer, accept, and escalate. Each strategy aims to reduce the probability, impact, or exposure of a threat.
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