Assessing Risks of Participatory Design Projects

Assessing risks of projects is difficult from a practical as well as from a theoretical point of view but valuable in both dimensions. Project management and risks in projects can be discussed from a systems theory perspective that focuses on how systems develop and stay stable in spite of change. This approach is refined and applied to in three phases of a project-life-cycle (decisions made before a project starts which include substantial parts of the problem definition; the actual project phase; the ending of and the time after the project). The theoretical framing within systems theory allows for a detailed discussion of the project design. Finally, the approach leads to a concise list of questions that may be used to design projects as systems and/or to assess risks.