Question 1

"It is impossible to be a good risk manager without a thorough understanding of probability theory."

Consider this statement, and discuss, in 1000 words or less, why you support it or disagree with it, or whether you take a position between these two opposing points of view.

Include a list of any references you have consulted (including text materials).

Comments

There is no right or wrong answer to this question.

In answering it, you should:

- State your point of view
- Develop arguments supporting and opposing your point of view.
- Draw a conclusion, showing how you have used your arguments to do so.

You should look at references outside the course material, using both on-line and print resources. On-line resources include both the Internet and library on-line material. For example, the University of Southern Queens land subscribes to a number of on-line databases, which contain abstracts (and sometimes full text) of many current journals.

Direct quotes from external sources should be limited to no more than 10% of your discussion, be enclosed in inverted commas, and properly referenced. It is more important that you use the input from the various reference sources and put it in your own words (while still acknowledging it) to support your arguments.

Question 2

Overview

Question 2 allows students to demonstrate their understanding of risk management principles and their application to real-world situations. This assessment also provides the opportunity to demonstrate written communication skills.

There are two parts to this assessment:

1. Written report

2. Written communication and presentation

Scenario

Your task is to develop a risk management proposal for a specific industry. The industry can be one that you are currently working for or an industry of your interest. The industry can produce products, provide a service, be a utility company, a government authority, construction/civil, IT, an educational institution, basically any company or industry in which you have a specific interest in or work for.

As an employee of the company and in a supervisory role you have been asked to provide a ‘proposal' for a Risk Management Plan covering a new product, service and/or project. The proposal is to be presented to the Company Executives, at their monthly meeting on 13 October 2015.

Requirements

Written report

You are required to develop a report containing:

1. A profile of the Company / Industry selected for this task. The profile should state the company / industry, what they actually do, such as products or services. This section of the report should be titled The Company Profile and be a maximum of 2 pages.

2. A brief business case addressing the following:

- The feasibility of a risk study (brief summary of major reasons for the proposal)

- Terms of reference for the proposal (what must be carried out by the risk management team. It should discuss the background and specifies the scope of the states the main motives for the proposal and the questions asked. It sums up available knowledge and outlines evaluation methods and the distribution of work, schedule and the responsibilities among the people participating in a process. In brief statements). Keep in mind this is a presentation by you to the company executives

- Project team (who should be members of the working risk management team specific for your industry).

3. The risk/s specifically related to your company (or industry) and its products and/or services is anything that is likely to adversely affect the company's objectives (such as specification, requirements, benefits, schedules, budgets, deliverables) just to give you a few examples (Remember your list should be representative of your industry).

4. An assessment of each risk's likelihood and consequence in terms of: 

- Low

- Medium

- High

- Very high;

and a risk ranking based on a semi-quantitative approach.

5. Assigned priorities for the risks (risk evaluation). How you present this is how you will convince the executives of the company that your Risk Management Proposal should be approved.

6. A description of your proposed risk management process including the following areas:

- The steps you plan on taking in your risk management plan (what you and the team will do)

- Any rules and responsibilities required to carry out the proposal such as how to identify, how to do the review of each risk, and how to assign risk actions for risk minimisation.

7. A list of each of the risk management documents that you will develop as part of the process. You must explain the purpose and content of each document.

As part your assignment you must list any resources that were used in formulating your proposal (appropriately referenced). As you are developing the proposal for the executive team of the company, the maximum pages for the proposal is TEN (approximately 4000 words), it is important to present proposal in a concise, easy to follow, well organized format. There is no specific template to how you develop the proposal as it will vary depending on the industry you have chosen.

Your document is to comply with the requirements of AS/NZS 31000:2009 Risk Management - Principles and guidelines.