How does a PM identify project risks & suggest risk mitigation approaches with stakeholders?

Question

How can a Project Manager identify all the risks on his project? And once he identifies the risks, how does he suggest the risk mitigation approaches to his project stakeholders? Should the risk mitigation approaches, once suggested by the PM, be adopted by consensus by the stakeholders?

Please explain the whole process.

Answer 1

Here's a question asked before on the risk identification techniques: http://www.projectmanagementquestions.com/3656/risk-identification-techniques

As for the risk mitigation, the process differs from one project manager to the other. Some may just send emails to each and every stakeholder containing the risks that each stakeholder might know of. In these emails the project manager may give several approaches to mitigate each and every risk, and the stakeholder might choose the approach that he thinks is best (or may suggest a new approach altogether).

Another way for planning for risks is to hold a meeting with all the stakeholders, where the project manager talks about each and every risk and lists the mitigation approaches for each risk. In this case, the stakeholders will usually choose which approach to apply either by consensus or by voting.