Practical Risk Management Part 1 | Information Technology

Identify risks in your current project

This week ask your internship supervisor to help you identify a project that you will be working on (or that you are already working on) and from which you can enter the following information into the Project Context section of the RMP (Risk management Plan) template:

1. Plan Prepared by (enter your name here)
2. Organisation (the name of your internship company)
3. Date
4. Supervisor  (you should put your supervisor’s name here)
5. Project Name
6. Project Description
7. Project Deliverables (e.g. “New website”, “Phone app”, PC’s Imaged”, “System tested”)
8. Business benefit i.e. what will the company gain from this project?
9. People (who will be working on this, including yourself?)
10. Equipment
11. Budget (you can enter “TBA”, which means To Be Advised, if you don’t know)
12. Start (expected start date)
13. End (expected end date)

In a commercial project most of this information will come from the scope statement.

Once you have done this, during the course of this week you will complete the Project Context section, then identify and analyse the main risks.

Next week, the last week of Risk Management, you will complete the final section of your plan which we call the “Risk Treatment Plan”

Revise your Risk Management notes

• Revise last week’s seminar, “Introduction to Risk Management”, and from the resource, “Risk Management Guide for Small Business”.

This week we start investigating how to complete a “standards based” RMP (Risk Management Plan and you will use as your primary resources the PE Risk Management Plan Template from last week, and again, the Risk Management Guide for Small Business.

The template is split into three parts

Work to be completed this week

• Part 1: Project Context
• Part 2: Risk Register

Work to be completed next week

• Part 3: Risk Treatment Plan

Part 1: Project Context (To be completed this week)

The section gives us an overview of the project and the environment in which it will be managed. Additionally it indicates why the project is needed, what it will deliver, and how this will benefit the company.

                                                                 

The fields include:

Plan prepared by

In this case it will be your name of course, but it would normally be the name of the Project Manager.

Project Sponsor

“A sponsor is the person or group who provides resources and support for the project and is accountable for enabling success.

The sponsor may be external or internal to the project manager’s organization. From initial conception through project closure, the sponsor promotes the project. This includes serving as spokesperson to higher levels of management to gather support throughout the organization and promoting the benefits the project brings.

The sponsor leads the project through the initiating processes until formally authorized, and plays a significant role in the development of the initial scope and charter. For issues that are beyond the control of the project manager, the sponsor serves as an escalation path.

The sponsor may also be involved in other important issues such as authorizing changes in scope, phase-end reviews, and go/no-go decisions when risks are particularly high. The sponsor also ensures a smooth transfer of the project’s deliverables into the business of the requesting organization after project closure.” (PMBOK guide, Fifth Edition, p123).

Project Name

what's in a name?

This is a short name to make it easy to reference the project, e.g. “Windows 12 Upgrade”. In many organisations, a register of projects is maintained by the Project Management Office, and they issue “names” (often containing numbers, e.g. XY-789-01) for the Project Managers to use.

Project description

This will be one or two sentences, e.g. “Upgrade all desktop computers to MS Windows 12”

Problem it is seeking to solve

This can be a problem to solve (a threat) or a benefit to pursue (an opportunity). E.g. “We need to implement a new ERP system, but it will run only on Windows 12, so all our computers need to be upgraded to Win 12”

Project Deliverables

The products, services or results that the project will deliver. E.g.. “Computers upgraded to Windows 12, support manuals updated, staff trained in Win 12”

Business Benefit i.e. what will the company gain from this project?

The key phrase in this sentence is “business benefit”. In our example, upgrading to Windows 12 is not a business benefit; it is simply an “enabler”. In this case the business benefit could be, “The company will be able to use the new ERP system, to increase efficiency”.

Resources to be applied

What will it take to produce these deliverables?

• Peoplewho will work on this project, including yourself (names and/or positions are acceptable) e.g. PM (Project Manager), software analyst, 2 programmers, tester, etc
• Budget:approximate amount of money allocated specifically for this project
• Equipment:if it must be obtained especially for this project
• Estimated Project Duration:the expected start and end dates

Part 2: Risk Register (To be completed this week)

There are three main steps to creating a Risk Management plan

1. Identify the risks
2. Analyse the risks, and
3. Treat the risks

Important note:

In last week’s lesson you learned that risk analysis occurs at two levels:

1. Qualitative Risk Analysis

This is the first step. It is a subjective analysis, and usually employs words, such as “low”, “medium” and “high” rather than numbers (but simple number can be used, e.g. 0 to 5, to keep engineers happy).

1. Quantitative Risk Analysis

When you have completed your qualitative analysis, the more important risks may be subjected to quantitative analysis (more precise numbers, data ranges, and historical information)

For PE you will carry out Qualitative Risk Analysis only

You will notice in the note above for Quantitative Analysis, it says “ important risks may be subjected to quantitative analysis ”.

According to the PMBOK guide, it might not always be necessary to Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis and it’s up to the project manager to decide if it can be justified on the project. (PMBOK guide, Fifth Edition, p335).

Do not change any of the risk management template formulae

Question 1

Identity your project’s risks

Using the RMP

template  and

after discussion with your supervisor, complete the

left hand

side of Part 2: Risk Register (i.e. the first five columns, ending in “Risk Consequences”. You should list at least 8 possible risks.

Details of fields in the RMP Risk Register:

• Risk Ref. No:This is just a sequential number, used as a key for associating with the Risk Treatment Plan.
• Category:Select Commercial, Finance, Security, Safety, or Legal/Regulatory from the drop down list. You may have more than one risk in a category.
• Risk Description:g. “Older scanners may not work under Windows 12”.
• Risk Cause:g. “Drivers may not exist for Windows 12”.
• Risk Consequences:g. “Invoices cannot be scanned in”.

Upload your updated template to the Forum by Wednesday night. 

Question 2

Analyse your project’s risks

Analyse the risks in your project; you may discuss these with your supervisor. Using the RMP template again, complete the right hand side of Part 2: Risk Register (i.e. Impact and Likelihood). Do not change the Rating column, it will be calculated for you automatically by the spreadsheet.

Upload your updated template to the forum by Saturday midnight AEST.

Marks Allocation:

Remember marks are awarded on your work as follows:

• 0 marks if there has been no reading of seminar and module overview as applicable in the week.
• 1 mark if reading of the seminar/module overview as applicable, has happened
• 2 marks if seminar/module reading has occurred and there is some quality work but it is not of sufficient quantity and/or timeliness
• 3 marks if above conditions are met and it has appropriate references to support the argument and discussion
• 4 marks if all the requirements in 1,2 &3 above are present and the work demonstrates a high quality of engagement and thought.

Week 7 Journal

Reflect on this week’s Professional Environments, Internship activities and learning. Remember that this is your document to help you recall new and significant things from your week and plan for your future. Only you and your tutor can read this journal.

You should write at least 200 words on something you have learned this week that may include:

• what you have learned
• what is happening in your internship
• how you are relating what you have learned to what is happening in your workplace
• other aspects of your professional development
• an article you have read
• an event that you have attended
• something that may have happened in the workplace that has resulted in your learning about our different workplace culture
• an interview you had, or a presentation you may have given.

NOTE: If you are not currently in an internship, or have completed your internship, you should consider reflecting on some of these other related activities.

Your reflection may cover more than one of these categories.

Use the Reflective Journal Reading article as a guide to possible career development activities.

Marking Guide:

0 marks if there has been no journal entry.

1 mark if you simply summarise what you have learned in the seminar this week

2 marks if you just summarise your seminar and list your internship activities

3 marks if you can relate what you have learned in the seminar to your internship or other workplace activities

4 marks if your journal shows reflective thought and application of what you have learned this week to your ongoing and future professional development.