Assignment Guidance
In the template, the first column can be used for broad project level risks such as risks to the overall project objectives, assumptions, or constraints. The second column is used for broad risk categories, such as technical risks. The third column is where you would place specific risks related to activities or WBS deliverables. If you have any questions, please post in the discussions. Other students may have the same question. Use the risk metalanguage as described in the text.
A note on the risk metalanguage as presented on pages 63 and 64 of Hillson and Simon. If I am managing, for example, a project to add additional servers to a data center, someone in the risk identification meeting might say "air conditioning load". To everyone in the room that translated to:
· Cause - We are adding additional servers to the existing room
· Risk - The additional heat generated by these servers may exceed the ability of our current air conditioning system to keep the room cool enough
· Effect - This could result in increased temperatures and server failures.
In the professional world, this is added to the risk list as "air conditioning load". I can do that. However, as students no matter how experienced you are as project managers, I want to be able to see how you describe your risks. Using the appropriate risk metalanguage will also be helpful when you start to analyze the risks and to develop risk mitigation strategies. If you look at the rubric below you will see that there is a high penalty for not correctly expressing the risk. So be cautious when writing your risks and compare them to the metalanguage. As you develop each risk ask yourself if it is a risk or a project requirement. Many students have a tendency to list project requirements as risks instead of looking at what risks could have an effect on meeting the requirement. Also, only use weather if your project is being performed outside and try and avoid thermo nuclear war, comets, and all other world-destroying risks. Still have fun with it. Below are some examples and the Grading Rubric.
In order to keep the RBS manageable, identify 10 risks from your project to be included in your RBS.
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RBS Level 0
Use the column for broad project level risks
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RBS Level 1
Use This Column for Risk Categories
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RBS Level 2
Use this column for Detailed risks - such as those connected to a WBS item. Use the risk metalanguage and for each risk state the Cause, Risk, and Effect as illustrated above.
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Budget Assumption
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The project has a firm budget of $100,000, if we exceed this amount, the project may be terminated or we will have to decrease the scope
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Overall Technical Risk
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For this project, we are using Linux servers for the first time, if our internal employees cannot quickly learn to set up these servers, it will delay the delivery date.
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The web pages must display within three seconds, if we cannot increase the display rate, the customers may leave our site and go to a competitor.
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Time constraint (on a construction project)
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The project is scheduled to start late in the season, the late start may cause delays, resulting in having to shut down the project until the next season.
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Overall labor risk
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The operators union contract is scheduled to expire during the project, this would cause the loss of all heavy equipment operators, resulting in XXXX
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The concrete footers are scheduled to be poured in November, if the temperature drops below 42 degrees, we will not be able to use our standard concrete mix resulting in increased concrete cost.
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