Phyllis Young
jenins5
phillis_young_3.docxRunning Head: PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN
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PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN
Project Risk Management Plan
Project Risk Management Plan
Introduction
Just like in any project, risks are part of the project and can have serious consequences on the project progress if not well managed. The first step in risk management is risk identification. Risk identification is a process that involves several tools of risk management like project auditing. After identification of all possible risks of a project, it is essential that a continuous process of monitoring the identified risks be carried out. In Company Z’s HR website development project, various tools for risk monitoring and reporting will be used after this document discusses the potential risks and presentation of these risks in a matrix table. Risk management plan is helpful in evaluating project performance and also aid in the process of decision making (Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F., 2011).
Risk Identification
Software development risk identification process involves several steps including development of risk management plan, performing risk analysis, developing a response plan and risk definition. Risk identification is the most important step of risk management process as it prepares the project teams on the developing challenges. Risk identification in this HR project is determination of all the potential risk that can affect the development process as well as documenting all the characteristics of these risks. However, little resources and time should be spent on risk identification. Instead, the resources should be spent after a detailed analysis (both qualitative and quantitative) has been done to know which risks should be prioritized. After arranging the risks according to priorities, then the resources can be spent in mitigating these risks.
Risk identification can also be complex if effective tools and techniques are not applied. The following techniques and tools can be used for risk identification;
· Performing a SWOT analysis on the project
· Performing an assumption analysis (Burke, R., 2013).
· Identifying risks from the judgement of experts in web application development
· Conducting a checklist analysis; this is especially applicable if the company had had similar projects in the past.
· Use of diagramming techniques; such as process and system flow diagrams/charts, cause and effects charts and influence diagrams.
· Using various techniques of data collection like Delphi technique, brainstorming, analysis of root cause and interviews.
· Checking the documentation reviews for various systems.
Using the above outlined techniques for risk identification, the following risks are identified for the web development project;
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Risk Comment by Daniel: Good, but these could use more explanation. |
Area in the project |
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The schedule of the project may exceed the allocated time |
Project schedule |
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During procurement process, some of the web development tools like software and hardware may be delayed |
Project requirements |
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There may be burden rates such as the labor costs and support costs. |
Human resource |
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Unavailability of project team members when require. |
Human resources |
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Some packages used to develop the application or website may be defective especially if the packages are off the counter. |
Requirement |
|
There are also risks associated with obtaining and backing up the company’s data during the processes of web deployment. |
Technical |
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The support team intended to offer support services for the website users may be unavailable when required by the developing team. |
Other |
|
Change of environment |
Technical |
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Poorly defined requirements, both business requirements and technical requirements. |
Operational |
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Legal and compliance risks |
Legal |
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Subcontractors and the outsourced parties may demand higher costs for their services offered. |
Human resource |
All the identified risks above have some probability of occurring as well as impact on the project in case they occur. Therefore, there is need to have a risk assessment step in risk management to be able to establish the level of risks and allow for proper resource allocation. Comment by Daniel: All risks do
Risk assessment
Assessing various risks in a web development project is important to help determine the severity of each risks in case they occur. This will also help the project manager together with the project stakeholders to be prepare and allocate some resources for such occurrences (Kerzner, H. R., 2013).
The process of risk assessment involves establishing the level of each risk by estimating the likelihood of occurrence of a risk and them mapping it against the possible impact on the overall performance of the project (Burke, R., 2013). In most cases, the likelihood or probability of occurring is obtained by grouping the risks into various blocks and then assigning them a group of risk level based on how often and vulnerable the project is in respect to that risk. In the case of Company Z project, the probability of each risk can extracted from three broad levels as show below;
1. Low risks- between 0% and 39% probability Comment by Daniel: Good
2. Medium risks- between 40% and 74% probability
3. High Risks- between 75% and 99% probability
The above three risks forms a foundation for establishing the project’s risk assessment matrix. However, there is a broader scale that can be used to effectively classify the HR web portal development project. This broader scale is of a 5-number scale for all the risks. This means that the probability of a web design risk is represented by either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Those risks assigned number 1 includes those that have the lowest probability of occurring while those represented by 5 have the highest probability of occurring. Comment by Daniel: Why introduce and define a 3 point scale when you are going with a 5 point scale? Comment by Daniel: Is this a relative vice absolute measure?
Risk matrix
Risk matrix is a tabular representation of the risk probabilities mapped against the impact of the risk on the project. The following matrix can be used to establish the level of identified risk in the web development project for Company Z;
|
|
Probabilities of the risk occurrences |
V.L: this is very low meaning that there are very minimal chances of the incident occurring |
L (Just low meaning that the chances are unlikely) |
Medium (Medium means there is a 50-50% chance of occurring) |
H (High chances means that the incident is likely to occur) |
V.H (Very High implies that the incident will occur frequently) |
|
Level of impact of the risks in case they occurred |
Very low |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
|
Low |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
Medium |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
|
|
High |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
|
Very high |
5 Comment by Daniel: What do these values mean? It doesn’t match your 3 or 5 point scale. |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
The risk levels shown in the red boxes indicate a very high level and hence should be prioritized. Each of the identified risk should be weighed in the matrix developed above to help determine the level of the risk (Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F., 2011).
The following key can be used for the above matrix;
|
Matrix color |
Risk level |
Description |
|
|
Less severe risks |
These risks have a relative low impact in the website development process and should be allocated minimal resources. |
|
|
Moderate risks |
These risks have a 50-50 chance and impact of occurring during the life cycle of the web development. |
|
|
Very severe risk |
These are most sever risks and they should be monitored and allocated more resources. They should be given first priority. |
Risk Analysis
|
Risk Element |
Probability (Scale of 1-99%) Comment by Daniel: This defines the scale as a percentage or 1-10 scale. Nothing in these columns is a percentage of number from 1-10. |
Impact (Scale of 1-10) |
Mitigating Actions |
|
The schedule of the project may exceed the allocated time Comment by Daniel: This is not a risk. Something has to make this happen. That thing will be the risk. |
Medium
|
Very High |
Transferring some of the tasks to third parties. Use Agile or SCRUM SDLC to develop the site. Do away with waterfall model at every phase possible. |
|
During procurement process, some of the web development tools like software and hardware may be delayed Comment by Daniel: The cause for the delay is the real risk. |
High |
High |
The project manager should ensure all the project requirements are available before the start of the project. |
|
There may be burden rates such as the labor costs and support costs. |
Medium |
Medium |
Risk transfer should be used whereby the costs are transferred to other parties like insurance agencies. Comment by Daniel: Should be? Or will be? |
|
Some packages used to develop the application or website may be defective especially if the packages are off the counter. |
Low |
Very High |
The moving day should not be a working day, or the actual move should be carried out during off-hours. |
|
There are also risks associated with obtaining and backing up the company’s data during the processes of web deployment. Comment by Daniel: What are these risks? These should be what you are analyzing. |
Medium |
High |
Data redundancy should be used when handling the website or traffic data. |
|
The support team intended to offer support services for the website users may be unavailable when required by the developing team. |
Low |
Low |
Implementing proper communication channels and also training all the company’s employees so as to help in providing support to the users when the support team is not available. |
|
Change of environment |
High |
Medium |
Ensuring that the website and the HR Admin portal are implemented alongside the old system. |
|
Poorly defined requirements, both business requirements and technical requirements. |
Low |
Medium |
Using various methods to define the system functionality. For example, use of charts, diagrams, videos and comparison with other sites so as the logical and physical models are clear. |
|
Legal and compliance risks |
Medium |
High |
Legal requirements should be met at the initial stage. |
|
Subcontractors and the outsourced parties may demand higher costs for their services offered. |
Medium |
Medium |
Bidding the subcontracts to the public so as to select the most convenient and skilled subcontractors. |
|
RISK |
|
HIGH |
|
Project HR Plan
The HR plan for the web development project involves the process of identifying and recruiting project team, rewarding them and training the team. The human resource required in this project include top-level programming skills and technical supports as well as security and compliance experts. To obtain these skills in the project’s HR, job description is necessary (Meredith, J. R., 2011). Details of each role should be defined at the recruitment stage to avoid unskilled and ineffective labor force.
The human resource should also be acquired at the initial stage since web development need all the project team members to be present from the onset. On the other hand, the human resource should contain key performance areas that should be used for assessing performance and hence rewarding the most committed human labor (Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F., 2011). Key performance areas will also help to manage the project’s progress because it will be easier to delegate roles to different individuals.
Basically, there are three major key performance areas in HR of this project;
1. Market extension workers; they visit the users and business environment to determine the business needs. They should be trained and equipped to perform the task by allocating the company’s sales team to guide them Comment by Daniel: You determine the business needs.
2. Specialists on the subject matter; these include software developers, engineers and security experts. Appropriate documents, videos, and journals will be made available to ensure they have all the knowledge to prepare them for the project.
3. Extension or supervisory officers; the position role is to coordinate the team members on various tasks and ensure the project life cycle is followed and schedule met. Project manager will provide the required training for the individuals.
Communication Plan
|
Project Stakeholder (Sender ) Comment by Daniel: There are many more stakeholders with differing interests that should be discussed. |
Project Stakeholder (Receiver) |
Information content (Status and issue reports) |
Period during/of communication |
Method of communication |
|
Project team members |
Project manager |
Accomplished activities, project risks, project changes, |
Weekly reports are sent for the project milestones accomplished. |
Printed media, oral/verbal communication, Emails can also be used for distant developers. |
|
Project manager |
Project sponsors |
Project milestones, changes, risks and budget reports |
Biweekly |
|
|
Sponsors |
Project manager |
Budget changes |
Any time |
Hard copy |
|
|
|
|
|
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Project Procurement
Project procurement process in this project need to be done efficiently to allow the company reap several benefits and also meet the project objectives. To achieve this, procurement tools need to be used. For instance, expert guidance is one of the technique during procurement in various contract type that can help identify the best method to be used in procurement needs (Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J., 2011).
A common vehicle for the contracts is the cost plus contract vehicle that can be used in the project’s HR plan. This vehicle is helpful especially when professional workers are needed in a project. However, the main issue with this contract is that the goals of the project and the goals of the workers may not be common in terms of rewards. While the project budget may have a lower cost, the worker may need a higher reward. Comment by Daniel: This paper should not concern itself with what is common. What is your project using?
References
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2011). Project management: The managerial process.
Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.
