OKRs: Dependency and risk management

OKRs are defined around operational work that the team performs in a cycle. These OKRs are mainly achieved when the planned work is completed. Obviously, generating delays causes the operation to not meet the predetermined times and thus makes it difficult to achieve your OKRs in a timely manner.

These delays in OKR compliance occur due to many possible factors (budget, poor estimation; but mainly, poor management of dependencies and risks). That is why it is essential to reinforce our risk and dependency management model when adopting OKRs.

Teams are subsystems that belong to a larger system. They all have direct or indirect connections throughout their operation. This is why internal dependencies tend to be very marked and variable throughout OKR cycles. It is essential to have a plan discussed among the actors that generate dependencies.

Knowing when the deliverables of dependencies must be made available to the team that needs them and this must be clear before even setting a target for the key results. These agreements must be mapped primarily in a scheduled work plan.

Each dependency generates a risk. Each important factor for OKR compliance that the team does not control generates a risk. This is known from the design of the OKR. It is also necessary to be able to initiate an evaluation that allows knowing the probability and impact of the risk occurring with respect to OKR compliance.

This assessment will most likely provide us with management actions that must be distributed throughout our work cycle.

Suggestions

• As you design your OKR, constantly ask yourself what dependencies and risks you have and write them down.

• At planning time, look for the teams/stakeholders you work with and try to reach agreements on delivery. Set dates and update your work plan.

• According to the agreements, each dependency carries associated risks. Record and evaluate them. You can use a matrix if you wish. To this, you add risks linked to factors that you do not control and that impact the fulfillment of your OKRs. Manage the most important risks.

• Add a weekly space, at least, to review your work plan, dependencies and risks. This will allow you to take joint actions to better manage your work. This space can be within the team but could also be escalated (among the teams that are part of the same area, train or tribe).

• You can have joint escalated risk planning spaces. This can be very useful for managing common or transversal risks across many teams. It could help make management more efficient.

• Before starting your OKR cycle, you must have already planned your operation (BAU), your dependencies and risks at all the necessary levels so that on the first day of the cycle, you can already begin executing your plans.