We have put together a few handy Risk Management Tips & Tricks so you can plan and invoke risk-handling activities and mitigate the adverse impacts of these on your business.
Subcontractors
Ensure subcontractors are engaged directly by the Principal so you remove yourself from the contracting chain. You are responsible for the actions of subcontractors and may be directly or vicariously liable for their actions.
Contracts
Have your contract reviewed by a solicitor to understand your contractual liabilities. Insurance policies typically exclude liability assumed under contract, so it is important to understand where you stand. Certain insurance providers give cover for contractual liability but you need to raise this first so it can be factored into the quote process.
Business Continuity Planning
We recommend always having a contingency plan and redundancy controls in place to fall back on. Within the IT industry, this could be something as simple as ensuring a previous system is backed up and easily accessible before changing to a new system. If the transfer does not go as planned, it will be easy to revert the changes and re plan the project.
Checkpoint Sign Off
It is important to have checks and balances to pick things up along the way so you can judge whether a project is performing the way it should be. Having Key Milestones for a project is a great way to reflect on the project and whether it is being delivered as expected. Obtaining written advice from the client, developer and any other relevant parties at each Milestone checkpoint is a great Risk Management initiative.
Scope of Works
Ensure your scope is clearly defined in writing so there can be no questions as to your responsibilities – you should not be responsible for anything and everything with the project. If something goes wrong on site, you should be positioned as the person to fix it, rather than the one responsible for the loss.
Choose Your Clients
This may sound simple, however, being selective about who you work with will avoid a lot of issues. Unreasonable, unrealistic and demanding clients are often the people that will cause you problems. Trust your gut, if it doesn’t seem right it often isn’t.