Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry

8.6 Risk Response Planning and Strategies 
The next task that must be done in our risk management system is risk 
response planning. At this stage, we have discovered all of the risks known 
to date and have an iterative process for discovering new risks as the 
project progresses. We have evaluated the risks and assessed their impact 
and probability of occurrence. We have prioritized the risks in their order 
of importance. We now must decide what to do about them. This is risk 
response planning.

---

306 
Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry
Risk response planning is the process of developing the procedures and 
techniques to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to the project’s 
objectives. In this process, it will be necessary to assign individuals who 
will be responsible for each risk and generate a response that can be used 
for each risk.
Risk response strategies are techniques that will be used to reduce the 
effect or probability of the identified, or even the unidentified, risks.
Of course in the case of opportunities, we should want to increase the 
probability and increase the impact. The opportunity can be exploited by 
adding resources to encourage and maximize the effect. Opportunities can 
be shared. In the case where our own organization is not able to maximize 
an opportunity, a partnership or other arrangement with another organi-
zation may be made where both organizations benefit in a greater way than 
one of them can. By enhancing an opportunity, we can maximize the driv-
ers that positively impact the risks. Both impact drivers and probability 
drivers may be enhanced.
In terms of the risk strategy that should be employed, a qualitative or 
quantitative evaluation of the severity of the risk will be a guideline as to 
how much time, money, and effort should be spent on the strategy to limit 
the risk.