PLANNING THE PROJECT 1

Ch-1o Exercise 1 & 2

Chintan Patel

University of the Cumberlands

Date: June 12, 2018

E-1: For a project in which you are planning a campus event with a well-known speaker,

identify and quantify risks and develop contingency plans for the major risks.

The campus event may be associated with risks such as; financial risk to fund the

activities or sponsor could back out at the last moment. Performance risk where performing

groups student might not come to perform due to classes. Termination costs where money may

be spent and yet the guest speaker fail to turn up. Controlling the crowd may be difficult could

turn into a security hazard. Excessive noise could create a discomfort for a audience or speakers.

Low room capacity. Heating and cooling could stop working depending on weather condition.

Contingency plan may involve; Holding the event in an open air so as to avoid low room

capacity, heating and cooling, among others like; Avoid- Here the plan may be changed so that

the impossibilities of risk occurring may be avoided. Some risks can however never be avoided.

Mitigate- This involves changing a plan so that only minor risks can be experienced. Transfer-

this involves changing a project plan such that an outside agency assumes the responsibility to a

portion of risk occurring.

E-2: For the same campus event project, perform a literature review to identify risks.

Requirements for an effective risk management process carried out by a project

participant are associated with the project context and characteristics of the participant. Project

context can be characterized by the nature of the project, the immediate working environment,

the identity and actions of other participants, and the progress of the project to date.

Characteristics related to a particular project participant include motivation, capability, and

perceived responsibilities in undertaking risk management. An important contextual influence on

the appropriate form of RMP is the nature of the immediate “working environment.” From a risk
management perspective, the working environment could be characterized by factors such as

location of the risk management effort in relation to the project organization; the nature of the

organizational structure; the quality of supporting information systems; the availability of

information; organization culture in respect of attitude to risk and risk management, resources

available; and time available to undertake risk management. These factors either have to be

managed to facilitate risk management, or else taken into account in determining the form of risk

management process that is feasible. Effective risk management implies cultivating a working

environment that facilitates risk management or adopting a RMP that fits with the working

environment. The need for clearly specified responsibilities has long been recognized as a

central requirement for effective performance in organizations, hence the widespread use of

“Management By Objectives” and related techniques. In a project context, this translates into a

need for responsibility for project tasks to be clearly allocated to one or more parties, and for

these parties to have a clear idea of what is expected of them. In terms of risk management, this

translates into a need for risks to be identified and clearly allocated to appropriate parties.