A two-phased risk management framework targeting SMEs project portfolios

Managing project risks is challenging for many enterprises, especially smaller ones, because they generally only have very limited method or tool support, i.e. basic, qualitative and rather short term reaction to the occurrence of risks. This results in higher vulnerability and reduced competitiveness. This paper proposes a risk management framework fitting SMEs needs by providing a way to adequately quantify risks and address them at two levels. First, an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to perform cost-benefit analyses of the possible mitigation actions assessed through Monte-Carlo simulations. Second, an on-line optimisation tool is used to make sure the planning is following the minimal risk path and reschedule mitigation action as soon as a risk has materialised. To address the limited SMEs resources, the core components are provided as Open Source with a clean application programming interface for easing integration with existing tools. A reference integration with the Open Source Redmine project management tool is also provided.