Case 2- Risk Management on a Satellite Development Project

Case 2- Risk Management on a Satellite Development Project

Dartona Coleman

HRM517-Strayer University

Risk Management of a Satellite Development Project

Introduction

When a project manager talks about project risk management plan there are several options that they must consider. The list that has the foreseeable risk, estimated levels of impacts and the responses to the risk must be first and foremost in their mind. This establishes the risk assessment matrix that helps asses the level of impact the risk that could occur. A risk is an event that has a negative or positive impact. The risk management plan must work to minimize the impact. The plan must contain an analysis of the risk and the strategies that aid in eliminating the risk thus achieving the goal of the project. The plan must be reviewed several times throughout the project to ensure that all risk is dealt with in a timely fashion.

In this paper I will analyze the risk management on a satellite Management project. I will suggest issues that should develop if the team does not complete a risk plan. I will also justify why the risk plan is valuable to any project with cost, effort time and resources in mind. I will also asses how to determine the appropriate level of risk management for the project. This team only means of communication is through virtual devices. I will explain the impact that his fact can have on the completion of the project and suggest two (2) ways the team can maintain its current goals through planning and execution

Suggest the issues that could have developed had the team not had a risk plan. Determine the major impacts of risk that the team needs to understand for the project to be successful.

When a project begins without a plan to avert risk, then it is a project that has planned to fail. The team will b faced with the challenge of analysis by paralysis. Because of no prior knowledge of any potential risk to the project the team may be lost in the process of analysis of data when a risk arises. This put all team members in a compromising situation and then it becomes difficult to make intelligent decisions. Another risk that can arise without a risk management plan is the risk of surprises. Without a plan the team will have no prior knowledge of risk identification. Knowing well that each project has an inherent risk associated and if one of the risks arise the team will be caught completely off guard. This will increase the impact as much as it will the chances of occurrences. The other risk event is lack of communication. When a team does not have a plan it can hinder communication as the team may face the risks but are unable to communicate it to the project manager. This can lead to the projects failure because the manger is not aware of the risk facing them. Each risk has its threat and opportunities, but without a plan the team risks the chance that exhaustively identifies the issues in case of occurrence (Wheelwright, 2010).

An essential of having a successful project management team is having strict risk management techniques. It is strongly advised that a person must consider future issue when planning the project. The planner must think of the “what ifs, how do’s and the how comes when planning out all the possible risk the team may face. There are several explanations as to why a project team may fail. One is the lack of clear instructions. Without a clear understanding by the team members it is virtually impossible to have a successful team as well as a successful project result. Communication must be cleared within the team can result in opportunities for misinterpretations and spreading false information. This can also lead to confusion of roles and positions within the project team. (Duncan 2012)

The Satellite Development project had a tight timeline for production. Often time lines are needed to give each phases of the project a chance to produce the final product without delaying the product form the projected goal. If this project did not follow the tight timeline for production it could have easily extended beyond the expected completion date causing the project to be over budget and exhaust any reserves. The project risk was avoided as the Satellite Development project considered all risk from beginning to end. This team met for a day long meeting to discuss risk that could occur while carrying out the project. The team conducted research on other options used in the industry and developed their own method of responses for the risk of the projects. The team meet monthly and even with a well thought out plan for risk the team needed to keep in contact each month. Had they meet every other month their work would have been harder. Problem would have arisen as risks and would have been hard to solve. Resources such as databases helped supply a prioritizing list of the risk associated with the project. This also helped lead the group clear of all threats associated with planning the project

Justify the value of a risk plan considering the time, effort, cost and resources it took to develop such a plan. If you were the project manager, recommend the approach that you would take to ensure the project met the critical path identified.

Planning risk management is the “process of defining how to conduct risk management activities for a Project.” (Kloppenborg, 2013) The project manager must first understand the projects objective before they can plan for the project. The Satellite Development projects goals was to avoid the risk that they could encounter when attempting a project. The satellite team implements a plan to identify risk that would effect the time, effort, cost and resourced needed to develop the project. When a plan is developed to analyze threats to a project it can save time and cost for the project and will allow you to deliver your project on time and on budget with the desired results. The Satellite project identified all the risk that could occur during the project and encouraged the team to update from risk that had been previously identified. This input proved the value of the risk plan.

A good risk plan should deliver ultimate value that includes the following; assisting project completion ate a quicker pace as well as cheaper then estimated. This is due to the risk assessment plan saving the project from failure. Another value of a risk plan is prediction of the projects future. The management process of the risk is more predictable as results are seen. The risk plan also saves the effort as well as cost through proactive management (Wheelwright, 2010). As the project manger I would take the approach of ensuring the risk plan has defined all foreseeable risk. I would make sure my team understands that hey must work to eliminate the issues.

Asses how to determine the level of risk management appropriate for the project.

Assessing how to determine the level of risk management appropriate for the project will depend on the desired project to complete. Performing qualitative risk analysis is the “process of prioritizing risk for future analysis or action be assessing and combining their probability and impact.” (Kloppenburg, 2013). Quantitative techniques will assist in accessing how much risk can be involved with the project and how a manager should plan on identifying the risk involved with the project. The desired project should be assessed to determine the major and minor risks that the project will have so the major risk can be solved early before concentrating on the minor issues. When a project manger determines the level of risk management appropriate for the project they must have a full understanding and comprehend the project. With this knowledge the project mange must set goals, illustration that or both physical and metal and have a deep relationship with the project understanding it so much that they can relate to it.

Imagine the team working on the satellite development project was a virtual team in which team members were unable to meet in person. Explain the expected impact on the project and suggest two ways the team could maintain its current goal in both planning and execution

If the Satellite team had to communicate using technology the greatest impact on this project could be a breakdown in communication. It would be difficult to get all team members to consider or entertain communications with each other at the same time. When the team communicated with each other would depend on the time of day, their location and the total number of people to make the attempt worth while. In order for this team to maintain their current goals there would have to be certain guidelines and rules put into place that each member would be required to participate in regardless of what going on. This would be the only way to ensure effective communication within all participants. The project manger would have to set up a variety of communication means for the team to have.

Along with the communication devices another way that the team can maintain their goals would be to set up a Human Resources Team that would ensure that all correspondence and/or messages or communicated on a daily basis to all team members. This team could meet at least twice daily to ensure that everyone has the same information. The project manager would have to monitor this process closely to ensure success of the project

Conclusion

Risk management is an ongoing process and must. Once the project team has identified all the risk they must then identify the ones that can occur. Most likely their judgment will be based on past experience. This is why you must choose a manger that has experience in the type of project you want completed. With each project you will learn that early in the project there are more risk that when the project moves forward so the analysis must be completed early in the project. It is critical to understand that risk management is an ongoing process and must not only be done at the beginning of the project but continuously throughout the life of the project. All project mangers must remember that risk management is your best friend and ally. It always has your back.

References;

Kloppenborg, T., Nkomo, S. M., Fottler M. D., McAfee, R. B. (2012) Human resource projects management (2nd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Wheelwright, S. C. (2010). Managing New Product and Process Development: Text Cases. Simon and Schuster

Duncan, H. (2012). Project Planning a Step by Step guide. Retrieved from http//www.project.co.uk?project-planning-step-bystep.html