US-based risk management association RIMS has published a new report outlining the steps risk professionals can take to proactively address risks, and foster greater risk management success using the pre-mortem method.

Unlike post-mortem analysis, a pre-mortem risk assessment attempts to learn from failure before a project even begins, according to the report, The Pre-Mortem Method: Learning From Failure Without Actually Failing.

Authored by RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council members, Denise Sobczak and Michael Zuraw, the report highlights the advantages of implementing a pre-mortem risk assessment approach to strategic projects. The report also provides three steps for risk professionals to activate a pre-mortem assessment that aims to foster a better understanding of a project’s overall objectives, and ultimately improves transparency, communication and business outcomes.

“While companies put a lot of resources and effort into strategic initiatives, research shows that such projects fail at alarming rates,” the report notes. “The pre-mortem method can be applied to strategic projects by first assuming failure, then identifying the triggers of that failure, and developing plans to avoid or mitigate them to achieve success.”

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