TOPIC: How do you plan for new Government regulations?

How to plan for new government regulations that might be introduced when you are in execution phase? How do you make sure that the new government regulatios will not affect your schedule? Thanks in advance for your response.

Dear Mohammed:

Thanks for asking a wonderful question!

A new government regulation having a potential impact on a project’s schedule is an external risk that usually cannot be avoided. Risk management is a continuous exercise and is not limited to be carried out during the planning of the project. The Monitor and Control Risk process, from the Monitoring and Controlling process group, needs to be carried out periodically throughout the project. During this process you would find out that the new risk, “new government regulation impacting project schedule”, has risen up. If you have contingency reserves in your project schedule and budget, you might use them if the risk happens. If you do not have sufficient reserves, you need to secure them through a change request. For example, you might need to request for more money in order the compress the future project schedule if the risk brings in any sort of delay to the project.

I hope this answers your question.

Regards,

Khurram Hussain, PMP, CSSBB