# Instructional design/WBT risks/Risky Business

Instructional Design: Homepage > Identifying WBT Risks > Risky Business > Step 1: Identify > Your Turn - Risk Identification > Step 2: Prioritize > Your Turn - Risk Prioritization > Step 3: Mitigate > Your Turn - Risk Mitigation > The Risk Plan > Lesson Conclusion

## The Risk Planning Process

The risk planning process can be summarized in three steps:
* Step 1: Identify Potential Project Risks
* Step 2: Prioritize Project Risks
* Step 3: Mitigate Project Risks
For most WBT projects, the risk planning process can be completed in a 2-hour meeting. As the Project Manager, you should schedule this meeting early in the project planning phase and invite key members of the development team (Instructional Designers, Graphic Designers, Multimedia Developers, etc.) to attend. Beyond the core development team, decide whether it would be appropriate and productive to invite other stakeholders such as the Project Sponsor, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and subcontractors to attend the risk planning meeting. The output of the risk planning process is a risk plan.

## The Risk Plan

A risk plan is a list of all risks that threaten your project, along with a plan to mitigate some or all of those risks. Below is a sample risk plan for a WBT project. When you create the risk plan for an actual project, it will be much longer than this sample because you will account for all potential project risks. Notice that the risk plan aligns with the three steps in the risk planning process.
* In step 1, you will populate the Risk column with potential project risks.
* In step 2, you will use the Probability, Impact, and Priority columns to assess and rank your project risks in order of priority.
* In step 3, you will use the Actions column to list actions you can take to mitigate each project risk.
You will learn more about each step as you continue this lesson.
Risk plan for project – Sexual Harassment Awareness WBT Course
Assessment team members – John, Julie, Simone, and Nathan
| Risk | Probability | Impact | Priority | Actions |
| The client requests content changes after the storyboard review. | 4 | 5 | 20 | 1. Explain to the client in the Project Kick-off Meeting that even minor changes to course content after the storyboard review will delay the project and impact the budget, especially if narration and/or video must be rerecorded. 2. Receive storyboard approval from the client before starting course development. 3. Establish a change request process for any content changes after the storyboard review. |
| Voice talent gets sick and has to miss recording sessions. | 3 | 4 | 12 | 1. Schedule recording sessions early in the development process (but after storyboard review/approval) to provide a buffer. 2. Identify back-up voice talent who can fill in if original voice talent gets sick or can no longer complete the work. |
| Client does not like the course “look and feel”. | 2 | 5 | 10 | 1. Present a prototype and have client review/approve the “look and feel” before major course development begins. |
| Disruption of Internet services prevents team from working. | 1 | 1 | 1 | None |
| Continue to list all risks that threaten the project. | | | | |
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