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Portfolio Risk Mapping: Avoiding the Domino Effect
One project slips, another falls, and suddenly funding evaporates. Map the chain before it snaps.
Portfolio risk is rarely a single explosion; it is a chain of small knocks that topple each other. Mapping the chain is the difference between control and chaos.
Problem: blind spots between projects
- Shared resources and vendors are invisible until they conflict.
- Dependencies live in slide decks, not plans.
- Funding is allocated per project, so nobody owns the cross-project risk.
Solution: build the map
- Critical path across projects: Identify shared people, tech, and vendors on a single timeline. Color by who can approve changes.
- Impact matrix: For each project, define what happens if it slips two weeks. Does it block another launch? Does it burn cash elsewhere?
- Decision playbook: Pre-agree moves: defer features, add capacity, swap scope, or re-sequence. If this is improvised in crisis, you already lost time.
Smart conclusions
- Review the map weekly; portfolio risk is a living thing.
- Fund a small buffer for cross-project moves; it pays for itself the first time you avoid a domino.
- If nobody can articulate the second-order impact of a slip, you are flying blind.
