Assignment 4: Project Progress BUS519
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WK8_A3_RISKWORKSHOPANDRISKREGISTERB.docxRunning head: RISK WORKSHOP AND RISK REGISTER 1
RISK WORKSHOP AND RISK REGISTER 11
Risk Workshop and Risk Register
Gregory Finney
Dr. Steve Englehart
BUS519
Strayer University
November 20, 2019
Risk Workshop and Risk Register
Having a risk workshop during the early phases of project development is a crucial task for all organizations. This event happens after project planning but before contract plan development, contract estimation, and contract specification. Thus, the risk management process is an ongoing activity aimed at determining the knowledge needed for assessing the sequence of operations and project scheduling for the successful completion of a project. Knowledge determination takes place in a project risk workshop, during which risk management team participates in planning as well as the implementation of activities needed for successful project completion.
A risk register is an essential component of a risk management framework used by risk team management to clearly understand a project’s objectives (Hillson & Simon, 2012). The risk register is essential for recording details of all identified risks that may affect a project. It provides an analysis of the identified risks and their impact, as well as the management of threats. This PCNet Project B workshop will be convened to determine significant risks likely to affect the project and identify practices plus methodologies that risk management team can use to ascertain both project opportunities and impact. The risk workshop finding will be presented to project manager and project stakeholders to enhance higher computing performance.
Pre-workshop Activities
During the pre-workshop stage for PCNet Project B, the executive will identify as well as plan for potential participants with dominant personalities. This will help in determining how to manage these individuals during a workshop effectively. A project facilitator can then make these vocal individuals as a point of contact for participants to report to as well as relay any concerns about the project. Team members will establish objectives for the workshop and determine whether or not to have an external facilitator to guide the process. Also, the team will conduct a pre-workshop analysis to identify project team members and project stakeholders. The team will also prepare and issue the workshop agenda to workshop participants. By doing so, members would minimize residual risk without disrupting ongoing operations. Any unexpected event can affect the successful implementation of the project.
Relationship building is another critical activity that will take place during this stage. Project members need to establish a relationship among themselves as early as possible. Also, the project facilitator must develop a relationship with participants before the real workshop. Members can have a breakfast session where they can meet and talk about other important issues other than work-related matters to break the ice. Executives and workshop facilitators can use this opportunity to capture some risk plus opportunities that are likely to impact the program.
Risk Workshop Agenda
Introduction
The introduction session will take between 25 minutes and 30 minutes. It is at this stage that the program facilitator will introduce the purpose of the project. The project focuses on infrastructure migration in four major areas, including the need to have a standard desktop environment around the world, consolidation of a corporate network, and the need for a standard network server that uses Windows 2000. The project also focused on developing enterprise security as well as a directory system. Hillson and Simon (2012) indicate that an explanation of the purpose of the workshop is essential to win the participant’s interest in the topic under discussion.
Confirming Objectives of a Project
This session will take between 15 and 20 minutes. Participants will rely on risk logs and risk concerns to determine the objectives of the project. Confirming objectives is necessary to know the central theme of a risk workshop
Confirming Scope of a Risk Process
The session will last for 1 hour, with participants identifying events that are likely to impact the successful implementation of the PCNet Project. Members will have 30 minutes explaining the severity and probability of detected events. Defining the scope of the risk process will help in ensuring that participants do not depart from the theme of the workshop. Also, the scope will help in determining the project’s limitations.
Workshop Ground Rules
An explanation of workshop ground rules is projected to take 30 minutes. This event is needed to ensure that participants respect the purpose of the workshop. Also, workshop ground rules are necessary for effective working relations between workshop participants.
Risk Management Briefing
The Risk Management briefing will take 40 minutes and is necessary to understand and discuss the purpose of a risk log. Also, it is needed to review guidelines for solving identified concerns plus communication avenues.
Expectations and Results
This session, which is expected to last for 30 minutes, is essential to ensure that members work towards meeting expected outcomes. By doing so, team members will have a common purpose and work toward ensuring that the workshop meets the expected result.
Risk Identification
Workshop members will take 30 minutes to identify events that are likely to impact the project either positively or negatively. Risk identification sessions will help in determining as many risks as possible that are likely to affect the successful completion of PCNet Project B.
Risk Rationalization
This session will last for 35 minutes. It will help in determining the risks with the most significant impact, medium impact, and low impact.
Description of Risk using Risk Metalanguage
Members will take 20 minutes, separating the cause-risk effect. This will help in determining the source of risk and its associated impact on the project.
Recording of Identified Risks
This will take 20 minutes, and it can help in addressing identified risks and for future reference
Explanation of Assessment Scheme
Members will have 20 minutes discussing the formalities of the project schedule, objectives, and aspirations.
Assessment of Probability and Impacts
This will take 60 minutes. The probability of mitigating known, and probable risks can be useful if members determine the likelihood of risk occurrence and its associate effect. By doing so, it is possible to assign necessary resources toward each risk.
Risk Categorization
This is expected to last for 20 minutes. It will help in determining the different classes of risks likely to affect the project.
Nomination of Risk Owners
The session will last 20 minutes, and it is essential in determining persons who will be responsible for updating risk logs.
Close the Workshop
Closing the workshop will take 20 minutes, and it can help in determining whether the workshop has achieved its intended purpose. It can also help in responding to any unanswered questions by participants.
Threats in the Risk Register
One of the significant threats to the risk register relates to the redirection of human resources toward the implementation of the project once project deployment and decommissioning efforts are over. Besides, old computing standards costs per month would increase by between 100% and 600% depending on the duration that the organization continues to use old hardware. Moreover, the old desktop poses a significant threat to the organization as it is already obsolete. Thus, the information technology design team can only provide security programs and antivirus updates. Another source of threat relates to increased cost for support due to troubleshooting by support staff. The project will become more complicated if it allows separate processes and tools to support two environments.
Project costs are also projected to increase because of decreased reliability and increased break plus fix calls. Loch, DeMeyer, and Pich (2011) indicate that these were necessitated by obsolete hardware that had overstayed beyond their planned lifespan. Furthermore, the PCNet Project B’s master and domains were decommissioned, which resulted in invalidated resource domains. Because of this, the old personal computer and workstation environments lost their connectivity. The company carried out project decommission for resource plus synergy cost-saving, with the latter identified as a significant responsibility of the company. The move would compromise the business’s ability to support dual infrastructure.
Probability and Impact of Identified Threats
A risk or threat is an event that may happen, and the probability of the event happening can range from between above 0 percent and below 100 percent. Naturally, a risk results in adverse impact. Nonetheless, the size of impact tends to vary in terms of cost, human life, or other critical factors. A probability and impact matrix help in risk prioritization based on their potential effects on a project’s objectives (Project Management Institute, 2009). A combination of the probability of risk and impact of risk is necessary for classification of risk as either high, or medium, or low. The above-identified threats are thus classified as either high or medium or low.
Low Risk
The maintenance cost associated with the old infrastructure has been assigned low-risk levels because it possesses a less significant impact on the organization.
Moderate Risk
The increase in old computing standards costs per month has been assigned a moderate risk. This threat was found to rise on a twofold, quadruple, and six-fold level depending on the duration the company keeps on using old hardware. The fact that the organization realized that the continued use of new computing standards would increase computing standards as enough justification to replace the old equipment. The decommissioning effort meant for cost-saving is a medium risk event because it is the responsibility of the company.
High Risk
The risk exposure to the company due to the old desktop computers has been classified as a high-risk event. The old desktop has been ranked as nonstandard and obsolete, but the company still relies on the system as a security program. The increased cost for support due to troubleshooting by support staff is also classified as a high-risk event due to complex processes. It results in separate processes as well as different tools needed to support the two environments. Nonetheless, the organization provided enough financial resources for the project team to assess the expected economic impacts of risks posed to the company by identifying associated costs. Hence, it is vital to work within the allocated budget to have reliable results about financial effects associated with the threat. Going over the allocated budget can drain the profitability of the project.
The increase in project costs because of decreased reliability and increased break plus fix calls is also classified as a high-risk event. This is because the organization is prone to security risks if it continues to work with hardware that has overstayed its planned lifespan. The risk associated with the project’s master account and decommissioning of domains is classified as a high-risk event. Because of the threat, the organization’s resource domain will lack a valid trust, which is highly detrimental for business operations. The event is associated with the loss of connectivity between the old personal computer and workstation environment.
Opportunities for the Risk Register
The government of Sri Lanka became a significant partner to PCNet Project B. However, this delayed the project by six months because of the slow speed at which the Sri Lankan government was offering its support to the project. Even so, this did not stop the project from going on. The other opportunity in the risk register relates to the risk management office, which acted as a problem-solving resource, and the technical experts provided by Metal Resources Company. Main System vendors also provided technical experts who helped the company in the mobilization of expertise for effective solutions planning in the shortest time possible. Moreover, the quick exchange of provided technical information played a crucial role in providing early warnings plus solution approaches in the company’s parallel teams. This resulted in the efficient transfer of solutions because of the ability to work on similar issues at different sites.
At each deployment area, the company had representatives who were knowledgeable about the project’s logistical plus technical issues. The representatives would avert any problems associated with application migration in their respective regions. The project management office and the risk management office mitigated risks by enforcing strict guidelines and standards. As a result, the company managed to standardize its technical and business measures, thereby reducing the number of problems likely to happen. Hence, the risk management office enabled the company to work within its budget and effectively handle schedule variances. As a result, the project team used workflow diagrams depicting various tasks at various series of nodes (Loch, DeMeyer & Pich, 2011). Because of these opportunities, the company had a predictable budget, which enabled it to undertake similar projects.
Probability and Impact of Opportunities
The identified opportunities, just as it was with the risk, have been classified into low, medium, and high based on the probability of occurrence and impact on the project outcome. Qualitatively, the likelihood of occurrence for each identified opportunity are classified; 70 percent and above for high, between 40 and 70 as a medium, and below 40--low. The impact has been ranked as high for opportunities with the most significant implications for the project’s performance, schedule, plus cost. Medium impact has been assigned to prospects with a moderate potential effect on project cost, schedule, as well as performance. Low impact denotes opportunity with little impact on project performance, schedule, plus cost.
Low Impact
The participation of the Sri Lankan government in PCNet Project B, will not impact the project performance and cost in as much as it will affect the project schedule. This is the likelihood of its participation being high at 70 percent and above. The low impact criterion is because the government will neither provide financial support nor human resource that can impact project cost and performance.
Medium Impact
The organization’s probability of getting expert assistance from Metal Resources Company and Main system vendors is more than 40 percent but less than 70 percent. Thus, the likelihood of benefiting from knowledge by these experts is moderate. Although the experts’ input is significant for project performance and schedule, it has less significance on project cost. Hence, a medium impact allocation for the opportunity.
High Impact
References
Hillson, D, & Simon, P. (2012). Practical project risk management: The ATOM methodology (2nd ed.). Vienna, VA.: Management Concepts.
Loch, C. H., DeMeyer, A., & Pich, M. (2011). Managing the unknown: A new approach to managing high uncertainty and risk in projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Project Management Institute. (2009). Practice Standard for Project Risk Management (4th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Inc
