Question

Complete a qualitative risk assessment and response planning of each of the risks identified below. Use at least 1 of each of the threat risk response strategies for your response planning.

RISKS:

1. Project and purpose not well defined

2. Scope Creep

3. Project schedule is not clearly defined or understood

4. Lack of communication causing lack of clarity and confusion

5. No control over staff priorities

6. Delay in earlier project phases jeopardizes ability to meet fixed date

7. Unresolved project conflicts not escalated in a timely manner

8. Contractor delays

9. Added workload or time requirements because of new direction or policy

10. Stakeholder action delays project.

Rubric

Task	Point Value (out of 100)
Proper APA format, spelling, grammar, citation, and organization of writing	10 points
Risk Assessment	20 points
Risk Response Planning	50 points
Clear Format and Easy to View/ Report	20 points

Answer 1

1. Project and purpose not well defined

This is a risk on the project which impacts the execution. Without proper purpose defined, the resources and strategies for the project may not be used effectively. The response strategy to use here is Risk Mitigation, It is an investement to reduce the risk on the project.

At this point, the project manager can call for a team gathering with the top management and understand the objectives and purpose. He can hire an expert to review the current project and define the key steps to prioratize. Once the purpose is defined, clear communication is required to be in place so that all stakeholders are aware of the purpose.

2. Scope Creep

Uncontrolled changes to scope of a project leads to Scope Creep. Tackling scope creep involves controlling the changes in scope using a change control process. This involves:

• Continuous monitoring of the status and scope of the project
• Compare the actual performance measuers with the baseline scope
• Understand the degree of scope change and the cause for the change
• Deciding on the action. Has it to be corrective or preventive?
• Manage all the change requirements usinf a proper process in place

The response strategy is Risk Acceptance and Sharing. Its important that all stakeholders are aware of this change in scope. The team needs to be aware of the change and prepare themselves for revised deliverables. Even higher management needs to be ready to invest in the incremental cost required for the scope change.

3. Project schedule is not clearly defined or understood

Relevant team and resources need to put in place to device a proper schedule. Higher management need to be involved to convey the understanding to the team members. This resolution strategy is Risk Mitigation

4. Lack of communication causing lack of clarity and confusion

The reason for this risk can be a lot. It could be cultural if multi colour teams are part of the project. There are no enough inter team meetings to understand team members/stakeholder problems etc. In this scenario, we need to first identify the source of the problem and fix it. Small changes need to be imparted on to the team like a catch up session, weekly meetinngs etc to communicate and understand properly. The resolution strategy is Risk Mitigation

5. No control over staff priorities

If staff is not aware of the priorities, project schedules will get affected. the mitigation strategy to use here is Risk Communication. In short term all partipants in the project need to be aware of the risk and can coordinate in solving this. In the long term, organization can document best practices on how these risks be rectified.

6. Delay in earlier project phases jeopardizes ability to meet fixed date

Response strategy is Risk Acceptance. The delay happened due to unavoidable circumstances. the project manager should accept that be ready to expect delays in the project finish date. He can evaluate the risk and plan for contingency to overcome the lost time. Proper timely communication needs to be done to relevant authorities about the expected delay and risk.

7. Unresolved project conflicts not escalated in a timely manner

Accepting risk is the response strategy. the project manager needs to be aware and understand how far the entity can run accepting such a risk. The process of response involves analysis and evaluation of risk, using accepted principles, comparison to similar reference systems.

8. Contractor delays

Such a risk occurs when the contractor selection process was not followed properly. Not examining the contractor background also leads to such problems. The risk response strategy should be Risk Avoidance. This risk has to be avoided at the first place by choosing a contractor who has a proven track record rather than experimenting on new ones. Other way of response strategy of an existing contractor delay could be Escalation or Risk Transfer to higher authorities/contractor.

9. Added workload or time requirements because of new direction or policy

The response strategy is Risk Acceptance and Sharing. The stakeholders needs to be aware of this new direction, So proper communication strategy needs to be in-place. The new project schedule also needs to be communicated and teams should align with the new policy

10. Stakeholder action delays project

Risk Transfer response strategy needs to be used. The risk has to be transferred to the stakeholder for their own actions based on the contract made with the organization. The issue has to be escalated and relevant risk transfer to be initiated.