Cover your Risks:

As you engage on a project, either as a project manager, an independent consultant or both, there are many things you need to consider about the potential issues and risks that may come into play on your project.
When analyzing and considering risks, there are a few angles to approach them from; as well as different categories that you need to consider in regards with the team and or customer.
Risk avoidance
Not all risks can truly be avoided or predicted, but if you can avoid them you are much better off. You won’t have to battle it head on and it won’t potentially derail your project timeline and budget.
Risk mitigation
This is the next best thing to risk avoidance in that you have identified possible risks and come up with plans to mitigate, or lessen the severity of the risk should it present itself. In this case the impact will affect the project in the form of a potential budget increase or a timeframe extension, but with proper planning you’ll know the action to take to lessen the blow to the project and maintain the necessary forward momentum.
Vendor risks and issues
If you are relying on outside vendors for your project then you are automatically introducing risk. You can’t directly control those vendors, but you can make them aware of risk concerns, make them go through training on identifying how they’ll deal with potential risks, and even come up with backup vendors should major problems arise.
Customer induced risks and issues
The customer is part of the solution, but they can also be part of the problem. Influences and issues on the customer side can throw a wrench into project progress. Risks such as losing key customer personnel, funding issues, and slow decision-making can cause major project delays if not managed properly. Make sure that the customer is aware of the potential risks they can cause and that they are working continuously throughout the project to help ensure those issues do not arise and affect negatively affect the project.