Project Risk Management

PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT 20

MPM344-1701B-01 Project Risk Management

March 8, 2017

Ronald Burke

Contents

Project Outline 3

Risk Management Justification 3

Project Risks Identification 6

Project Risks Responses Strategy 6

Project Risks Responsibility Plan 7

Project Risks Monitoring and Control Plan 7

Project Risks WBS and Budget Updates 8

Project Risks Communication Plan 8

References: 20

Introduction To Project Risk Management

Project Outline

Brief description of the project.

Today, the United Kingdom and the United States have been receiving an overwhelming number of international students from all over the world. However, the number of the international students is larger compared to students from other countries. Several of these students study English while in the foreign institutions because, at their homeland, they are only shallow English that can only be used to answer examination questions (Lin 2014). The students are faced with a lot of challenges that they have to overcome in order to achieve what brought them to a foreign land. This paper will, therefore, aim at getting a better understanding of how it feels like to learn English as a second language especially for the Chinese students studying abroad.

Risk Management Justification

Carrying out a study that involves international students requires that I get data from the international students and their professors. For the student are not within my reach, then some finances will be required to aid the success of the project. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that funds are well managed to avoid overspending.

Project risk management has some advantages which include availing time to have a project being assessed; risks are documented such that future researchers can have a reference since the projects are usually planned, it allows the researcher to provide responses without delay to questions asked, and confidence level increases on the investment decisions.

Project risk management involves an eight-step process. To start with, the researcher has the responsibility of identifying the causes of the risk, that is, every factor that is likely to pose a challenge and delay the meeting of objectives. Here, the researcher is also granted with an opportunity to explore the factors that would enhance the meeting of the objectives. Secondly, the cause of the risk should be identified. Thereafter, the researcher should come up with the controls whose aim is to prevent the occurrence of the risk. In the next step, the researcher should identify the consequences that may arise as a result of the risk and also what impact that the control measures will have on the project. Then, the researcher should come up with a rating description and then the researcher should come up with the Cther controls. In the last steps, the researcher should come up with a decision depending on the type of risk at hand and reviewing and monitoring of the project should be initiated (Kendrick 2009).

Fig 1: diagram showing the project risk management process

Project Risks Identification

The risks involved include the fear of the international students to engage in this research since they fear being judged by the information that they release. Additionally, most of the Chinese students studying abroad are in the process of mastering the language. As a result, therefore, it is likely that they will get a wrong understanding of the questions that will be asked during the data collection period. The professors may also shy away from engaging in the research, especially if their teaching strategies are not effective or in the situation whereby they have adopted a wrong perception about the Chinese students studying English as a foreign language.

Project Risks Responses Strategy

To attend to these risks, the researcher will ensure to target a very huge sample in order to get responses enough to kick start the research. Furthermore, the researcher should identify the research method that will allow the Chinese students to get clarification to the questions when they get it wrong especially the interviews.

Project Risks Responsibility Plan

The plan will involve the participation of the researcher in the collection of more accurate data. This will be possible only if the researcher will use methods of data collection that will ensure that the learners acquire a clear understanding of the questions. Furthermore, the researcher should come up with ways that will entice the professors to participate in the research.

Project Risks Monitoring and Control Plan

Like earlier mentioned, the risk that can occur in this project is whereby the Chinese students may not be willing to avail data that will be used in this study. Also, the professors may also fail to give their responses to the research questions. Therefore, it is important that the researcher engages the sample directly and convince them what the advantages of the research will be. The researcher should also be available for any clarifications required by the Chinese students to ensure that accurate data has been collected.

Project Risks WBS and Budget Updates

Given the risks that the researcher might encounter while collecting data required for this project, it is important that the researcher gets near the sample rather than sending the survey questionnaires through emails. As a result, therefore, the researcher will incur some cost for the transport, the accommodation, food and beverages, and any other costs that may arise. Therefore, it is important that the researcher pools funds earlier that will facilitate the research to avoid challenges while collecting data in the field. Some other cost likely to occur is the cost used to print the questions in hard copies.

Project Risks Communication Plan

The risks that might occur on this project will involve the sample which includes the students and the professors. To ensure that ample responses are given, it is important that the researcher first engages the target sample and explain to them the purpose of the research and the likely positive impact of the research. Furthermore, the researcher should make sure that the target sample is guaranteed of confidentiality whereby their real names will not be exposed to the public. This is likely to increase their willingness to take part in the collection of useful data for the analysis of this project.

Project Risks Analysis

This assignment aim is to identify project risks and analyze them. Project risk is the probability that uncertain event will occur affecting objectives of the planned activities. It is, therefore, paramount for any project manager to identify these risks and plan for them. On that note, this assignment will describe 8 risks in detail to include, name, description, likelihood and impact.

Project Risk Table Ranked Based on Impact (highest to lowest)

Risk Name	Likelihood (scale 1-8)	Description	Impact
Scope Risk		It is a type of a risk that occurs when changes are made in a project to accommodate new features or deliverables. Other causes of this type of a risk are issues of integration, software and hardware defects and finally change in dependencies. The main cause of this risk is when project requirements are not clearly defined. Some of the problems that lead to this risk are such as when performance criteria are not well defined, no clear directions or no adequate reviews (Madsen,2012).	The scope is one of the three constraints of a project. If there are changes in scope, it means the other constraints will be affected and therefore need re-adjustment. Scope risks will affect time and costs since new deliverables will need more time and cost which might not have been planned for leading to project failure.
Scheduling Risk		Is a type of risk that occurs when activities in a project cannot meet time deadline. Scope risk is one of the major causes of this problem or poor estimates. Inaccurate estimates are caused by lack of prior experience, lack of adequate reviews and subject matter expertise. It pays heavily if the project planner is paranoid and pessimistic when making time estimations. However, there are various reasons why my project may not carry on in the scheduled way. Some of these reasons might be natural factors, unexpected delays at an external vendor, and delays in acquisition of parts (Madsen, 2012).	When scheduling risk occurs, it means that the project will not end in estimated time. Other project constraints will be affected such as cost since the longer the project runs, the more expensive it gets. This may cause the project to fail.
Technology Risk		Is a type of risk that mainly arise from hardware and software defects or the failure of an underlying platform or service. For example, I might realize halfway through the project that the cloud service provider that is in use in my project is not satisfying my performance benchmarks. Also, issues may arise from the platform that I might be using to build my software or a software update of an important tool that has stopped supporting some of my functions (Kerzner, 2015).	If the chosen technology for the project is limited, it means that project deliverables will not be achieved. This fact is enough to fail the whole project (Kendrick, 2015).
Design Risk		Flexibility and feasibility of architecture and design are vital to the success of a project. It is a risk to have a design of a low quality. Also, the designs of complex or experimental components can be highlighted as separate risks (Madsen, 2012). If the design is of low quality, then probably the whole project will fail if no caution is taken at early stages of the design process.	If design is not desirable or does not achieve the functions it is supposed to meet; then such project deliverable is deemed a failure.
Integration Risk		Whatever the project is delivering ought to be integrated with the processes, systems, organizations, cultures and environmental knowledge. Integration risk is a most common risk in projects. There is likelihood of a project being disrupted in case it needs to be integrated into a business process (Madsen, 2012).	If the project does not manage to integrate with the surrounding environment, failure is not optional. For example, a simple system designed to help in e-banking fails to coordinate with workers in such an institution; such a project will be deemed unfunctional.
Quality		Both risk management and quality are intertwined. I will expect my project to have defects, but still, there is a risk that quality will not meet the basic levels. Failure of the project may be triggered by significant rework. Quality risks for work packages, infrastructure, products, and components should be identified and avoided. Low-quality inputs will result in low-quality output, and this might prevent the project from succeeding.	Quality today is a major determinant of product success. The customers are more sensitive to quality issues than it was in the past due to high competition from many project managers. If the quality is poor, then such a project deliverable fails (Kendrick, 2015).
External Risks		External risks; these are triggered by external forces like laws, markets, and regulations. My project will face a risk if at all it touches compliance and sensitive processes (Kendrick, 2015).	If the project faces a market regulation or new law, compliance issues are expected to make it illegal or forced to meet certain charges making it expensive.
Stakeholder risk		Risk that occurs if stakeholders of the project fail to accept deliverables. There is a risk that project sponsors fail to support the project through finances. It might be caused by a factor such as poor quality or escalating costs (Kendrick, 2015).	The risk has a less probability of occurring, but if it happens, there are chances the project will not be completed.

Identified risks

When conducting risk mitigation in a project, it is important to first identify the risks which are being considered and how they are going to affect the project in the long run and in the short run. Risk identification helps in determining the parameters that are going to be affected and how they are going to be affected. The next stage is the risk assessment stage. Risk impact assessment deals with assigning figures to the risks which have been identified, and also the areas which are going to be affected by the risk which has been identified.

Risk impact assessment is essential in the development of strategy to deal with the risks as it weighs the benefit and the cot that are going to be derived if the risks that have been identified are to be dealt with. Risk assessment leads to the development of the strategies which are essential in handling specific risks and how to achieve that.

Strategies of risk mitigation

Avoidance will lead to the project taking a different route as the proposed risks will lead to the project either incurring more costs or the risks might derail the activities that the project is undertaking. Avoidance leas to a project being safe and avoiding the things might hurt the project. This will led to the development of a program that will help avoid the risks that the organization is facing. Avoidance leads to more time being taken to implement the project and also increases the cost that the project will incur.

Avoidance also leads to the firm developing more efficient strategies to implement the project in the new environment that it is operating. This is because environments change with time and this enhances the effects of economic changes in the environment. Through avoidance it is possible to also correct areas in the project which had been implemented before the changes take effect. The avoidance on the projects helps in ensuring that policies are flexible and other issues are taken into account.

Transference

Risk transferring is a trade that organization takes to secure their resources and to ensure that they are not incurring losses. Transference works where a company has identified a risk and it seeks a shareholder who is willing to take liability for the risks in question. The stakeholder who takes up the risks ensures that the organization is able to go on with the project and in exchange the stakeholder benefits if they are successful in dealing with the risk and if not, they incur the losses.

Mitigation

When mitigation risks, it is important taking account of other risks which might have affect the project in the future. The firm then prioritizes the risks with the risk which will have the largest impact on the project being given priority and dealt with first. Through risk mitigation, it is possible for them to incur fewer charges as it is possible to deal with all risks at once or deal with risks as each risk is being established.

Risk mitigation is a continuous thing that firms have to keep on undertaking as new risks are being established and dealt with; the project will run into more. The risk can be in terms of performance, competition or market factors which will affect the operations of the project in the long run.

Acceptance is a way of risk mitigation which leads to the project managers accepting and acknowledge that the risks exists and then they do not engage in any activities that will avert the risks. The project managers will have to consult with the managers of the firm in establishing that the risk will be carried on into the projects life.

The best strategy of dealing with the risk is the mitigation of risk as it leads to the development of the firm being safe and the project being successful. In the mitigation of various risks, it is possible to uncover more risk which will lead to the firm and the project being more careful of the options that they take and also in improving the performance of the project. Risk mitigation makes it possible to cut down costs of the operations and also makes the project to avoid future events and project which might increase the level of risks that the project will be opened to,

Risk mitigation increases the probability of a project being successful and this enables the firm to be able to plan more successful projects. It is possible to take into account the previous risks which had been incurred by the firm and this will help it to plan better projects. Risks lead to the firms having increased cost which leads to the project being unviable and this might affect the company profits. Company profits are tied to the success of the projects that it initiates and a failure of projects will lead to higher losses.

References:

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KENDRICK, T. (2009). Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for

failure-proofing your project. New York, AMACON. http://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/external/AbstractView/S9780814413418.

LIN, L. (2014). Investigating Chinese HE EFL classrooms: using collaborative learning

to enhance learning. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=883346.

Kendrick, T. (2015). Identifying and managing project risk: Essential tools for failure- proofing your project.

Kerzner, H. (2015). Project Management 2.0: Leveraging tools, distributed collaboration, and metrics for project success.

Madsen, S. (2012). The Project Management Coaching Workbook. London: Management Concepts Press.

Cruz, M. G. (2002). Modeling, measuring and hedging operational risk. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

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