Presentation from Design for Drupal 2015.

1. Sean Eddings, COOSean Eddings, Risk Mitigator
Design for Drupal, 2015
Risk:
The Elephant
in the Room

2. Our project's timeline
Was written by Stephen King
Terrifying fiction

3. Disclaimer:
I don’t have all the answers, and that’s why
I think this is so much fun.

4. Every project has risk.Truth 1:

5. Ignoring risk leads to
higher insurance premiums.Truth 2:

7. Risk is non-transferable.Truth 3:

8. Risk informs critical decisions.Truth 4:

9. “Risk is the business word for fear,
so what are you afraid of?”

10. “That’s unlikely.”

11. “But I’m the only stakeholder.”

12. “Just use lorem ipsum for now.”

13. “There’s nothing complicated about it.”

14. “This plan has too much red.”

15. “No delays!”

16. Who We Work With

17. As a full service digital agency,
Last Call Media enjoys work with
purpose– building engaging solutions
that assist and support organizations
working to improve the communities
they occupy.

18. • Calculated Risk Takers
• History of doing risky work well
• 2 Year Head Start on Drupal 8
Risk
Takers

19. Risk (n):
the possibility that something unpleasant
or unwelcome will happen that could jeopardize
a project.
/rɪsk/

20. Emotional
Cycle

21. Plan in Place to Recover, Fast

22. Risk Assessment
How do we make this valuable?
• Increase transparency between teams
• Increase project buy in from stakeholders
• Confidence in approach and solution
• To understand the risks and benefits
• Quantify the abstract to be able to make an informed decision
Identify > Document > Prevent > Mitigate

23. Risk & Solution
Assessment

24. Eating Your Vegetables

25. What Are All The Things?

26. Hopes & Fears

27. Colin Panetta, Creative Director

28. “It needs to kinda be alive, with an element
of new and different, which brings you in
and keeps your attention.”

29. “Must have strong CTAs.”

30. “… is a fun place. Ice Cream is serious fun.
While the information is serious, sophisticated
and important, the element of joy and fun
MUST be the big impression of the website.”

32. Unique & Unusual

33. “Ecommerce with two way
Quickbooks integration.”

34. “Subscriptions are managed in
Salesforce, content in Drupal.”

35. “We’re not sure if our current
branding is effective.”

36. “We can’t move forward until
everyone in our company
signs off on the design.”

37. Project Plan
Charter
Roles & Responsibilities
Risk and Solutions Assessment
Scope/Sprints
Timeline and Costs

38. Project Plan
Charter
Roles & Responsibilities
Risk and Solutions Assessment
Scope/Sprints
Timeline and Costs

39. Types of Risk
Timeline Item may impact projects overall timeline.
Budget Item may require more than budget allows.
Satisfaction Impact to satisfaction with project deliverables.
Scope Item may impact the expected deliverables.
Technical Item requires further technical review.
Project Item may impact project success.

40. Likelihood
1 improbable
2 low likelihood
3 likely
4 highly likely
ikely
5 near certainty

41. Prevention Plan
Recognizing this is a risk, what’s
the plan to prevent it?

42. Severity
1 minor impact to business
2 some impact to business
3 serious impact to business
4 critical to business
5 detrimental to business

43. Mitigation Plan
Should our plan to prevent not
be successful, what’s our plan
to migitate it?

44. Confidence
1 very high confidence > 9/10
1.25 high confidence > 7/10
1.5 medium confidence > 5/10
1.75 low confidence > 3/10
2 no confidence at all < 2/10

45. Severity x Likelihood x Confidence = Overall Risk Factor
Equation

47. Satisfaction
Client isn’t satisfied with design direction.
2 4 1 8
Prevention Strategy:
Complete thorough Discovery, Strategy, IA/
wireframing phase with client involvement at each
stage to make sure all are in agreement about who
the site is speaking to and how. Before designing full
site, provide Mood Boards and Style Tiles for
preliminary review and feedback. Allow ample time
and space for feedback.
Mitigation:
Justify design decisions and how they will be
successful. Seek clear organized feedback.
Additional rounds of design may impact project
timeline and budget.
Likelihood Severity Confidence Overall Risk Factor

48. “ In the end, it's
not the years
in your life that
count. It’s the
life in your years.”

50. Timeline
Client isn’t able to provide feedback on key
deliverables in a timely manner.
2 3 1 6
Prevention Strategy:
Develop initial project plan with dates for key
deliverables. Get client acceptance. During weekly
Client check ins confirm timeline is still acceptable.
Mitigation:
Should feedback not be delivered on time, the
project timeline may shift accordingly.
Likelihood Severity Confidence Overall Risk Factor

51. Timeline
Key stakeholder provides feedback at the
11th hour.
2 4 1.25 10
Prevention Strategy:
Develop initial project plan with list of all individuals
involved with their roles and responsibilities. Provide
dates in advance to confirm they can attend.
Mitigation:
Should feedback not be delivered on time, the
project timeline may shift accordingly.
Likelihood Severity Confidence Overall Risk Factor

52. Project
Business requirements were not fully
established during discovery.
2 4 1.25 10
Prevention Strategy:
Develop business goals and priorities during the
discovery phase and continue to relate back to them
during subsequent phases. Hold weekly Client
checkins to confirm direction matches business
requirements.
Mitigation:
Should site vision not take into account business
goals, additional time is necessary to implement
changes. No matter how much discovery it’s difficult
to prevent uncovering hidden business goals or
sudden pivots.
Likelihood Severity Confidence Overall Risk Factor

53. Scope
New site content isn’t ready on time.
3 4 1 12
Prevention Strategy:
During Content Strategy phase develop or
implement existing brand messaging strategy.
Inform Client if new site needs new content.
Determine if a writer is available at the beginning
and provide that individual assistance. Designate
content authoring period in the project plan. Real
content is required to confirm intended
functionality.
Mitigation:
Should content not be ready, project timeline and
budget will be affected. If content writing is
available, it will affect overall project budget.
Determine minimal viable content amount to
proceed.
Likelihood Severity Confidence Overall Risk Factor

54. Satisfaction
Internal personas may find site features
overwhelming.
2 3 1.25 7.5
Prevention Strategy:
Work with IA team to confirm that users will be able
to update what they need to from the outset.
Training documentation, such as a Getting Started
Guide, should be developed to help users navigate
the site. Introduce the work to a select group of
individuals for structured feedback during IA.
Relevant feedback can be incorporated into a later
sprint.
Mitigation:
Should internal personas continue to find the site
difficult to manage, Guided Tours or a customizable
user dashboard can be implemented. On site
training seminars with staff to walk through the
common features and be available for any questions
or feedback.
Likelihood Severity Confidence Overall Risk Factor

55. Let’s get started!

60. Risk Blindness

61. MIT Student
Cheers!