Project Risk Management Risk Identification Techniques 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: During a project kickoff, the team uses structured interviews with subject matter experts to uncover risks. What is the PRIMARY advantage of this technique over group brainstorming?
- It is faster and requires fewer resources
- It reduces groupthink and captures individual expert perspectives (Correct answer)
- It produces a ranked list of risks automatically
- It eliminates the need for a risk register
Correct answer: It reduces groupthink and captures individual expert perspectives
Structured interviews allow each expert to share candid views without being influenced by dominant voices in a group setting, reducing groupthink.
Question 2: A project manager is using the Delphi technique for risk identification. Which characteristic best describes this approach?
- Participants meet face-to-face in successive rounds until consensus is reached
- Anonymous expert input is gathered and refined through iterative feedback rounds (Correct answer)
- A single senior expert provides a definitive risk list
- Risks are identified by reviewing historical project data only
Correct answer: Anonymous expert input is gathered and refined through iterative feedback rounds
The Delphi technique uses anonymous, iterative questionnaires with summarized feedback each round to build expert consensus without direct confrontation.
Question 3: Which risk identification technique involves systematically reviewing project documents such as the scope statement, WBS, and contracts to find potential risks?
- Root cause analysis
- Documentation review (Correct answer)
- SWOT analysis
- Assumption analysis
Correct answer: Documentation review
Documentation review is the structured examination of project plans, contracts, and historical records to surface risks embedded in project artifacts.
Question 4: A team evaluates risks by examining what conditions are assumed to be true and what could go wrong if those conditions are false. What technique is being used?
- Cause-and-effect diagram
- Assumption and constraint analysis (Correct answer)
- Affinity diagram
- Monte Carlo simulation
Correct answer: Assumption and constraint analysis
Assumption and constraint analysis tests the validity of project assumptions and constraints to identify risks that arise when they prove incorrect.
Question 5: Which tool is most commonly used to visually map the cause-and-effect relationships that lead to a specific risk event?
- Tornado diagram
- Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram (Correct answer)
- Scatter plot
- Risk breakdown structure
Correct answer: Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram
The Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram traces multiple contributing causes back to a single effect, making it effective for identifying root causes of risks.
Question 6: A project team reviews lessons learned from five similar past projects before identifying risks on their current project. Which risk identification input are they primarily using?
- Expert judgment
- Organizational process assets (Correct answer)
- Enterprise environmental factors
- Stakeholder register
Correct answer: Organizational process assets
Organizational process assets include historical information, lessons learned, and templates from prior projects that inform current risk identification.
Question 7: When a project manager facilitates a session where participants write risks on sticky notes and then group them into themes, which technique is being applied?
- Nominal group technique
- Affinity diagram (Correct answer)
- Mind mapping
- Prompt list
Correct answer: Affinity diagram
An affinity diagram organizes a large volume of ideas into natural groupings or themes, making it useful for clustering risks identified during brainstorming.
Project Risk Management Risk Identification Techniques 2
During a project kickoff, the team uses structured interviews with subject matter experts to uncover risks.
What is the PRIMARY advantage of this technique over group brainstorming?