Your company has assigned you to work on a project plan for a new internal support system. This system will be expected to track formal contacts between company software contracting teams, internal management sponsors, and their external clients. In addition to the technical aspect of the project, there is significant doubt surrounding how well the project teams and the external clients will accept the changes mandated by the use of the new system, and what factors will impact its effectiveness.

Your assignment is risk control planning.

In 3-5 pages, complete the following:

• Produce a risk register.
• At a minimum, each risk must be assessed qualitatively.
• Provide a memorandum detailing in-depth assessment of one of each of the four recognized types of risk control measures.
• Reference all sources using APA style.

1

Project Risks

[Your Name]

[Academic Department Name, Institution Name]

[Course Name]

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Project Risks

To:

From:

Subject: Internal Support System Project Plan

Date:

This memo serves as an introduction to an effective project plan to implement a new internal support system. The project plan will include new updates to the software used for the current internal support system. The proposed plan will be formally proposed in a written format to seek approval from the project manager and project director. The project will have safety measures implemented to avoid previous information in the support system from being deleted. This will lessen the chance of any errors during the update process affecting the operations of the company. The safety measures will create archives of all current information in the system and allow for the project team to work on a copy of the current information to develop an effective update. This is the foundation for the objective of the project.

As the project progresses, it is important that any deviations from the proposed plan are communicated to all persons involved in the project. Most importantly, any deviations must be communicated to the end-users of the update as to lessen the chance for future user errors. The supervisor of the project will be responsible for maintaining the implementation of the project, including the schedule, budget, and communications to key players. Those individuals on the project team will support all parameters set in the project plan to ensure the effective implementation of the system update.

The following page will expand on the risk control register that will be implemented during the internal support system update.

Risk Control Register

Operational Risks

In understanding the risks that are possible within the parameters of the project’s plan, the project manager can determine the probability of each risk’s occurrence as it applies to operations. The concept of an operational loss is defined as a failed execution of a process or by a team that results in the loss of operations (Risk Management Association, n.d.). One of the operational risks is if the project manager has to be changed midway through the project. This can be mitigated by hiring a new project manager or shifting a manager from another project that is close to completion. Another operational risk is a team member having to leave the project and not having the flexibility to acquire a replacement team member. The mitigation strategy for this risk would be to work with the current team members to ensure they understand how to complete the missing team member’s responsibilities. Further operational issues include the project’s user requirements changing and there being conflict between team members. In mitigating the user requirements changing, it should be notated that these requirements should have been notated prior to the beginning of the project. However, to accommodate for the changes, the project manager should work with the team to develop a plan to address the new requirements. To mitigate the conflict between team members, the project manager should ensure that each member is treated equally and has similar opportunities. This can be done by assigning responsibilities and tasks prior to the beginning of the project to ensure that each individual understands their part as they are onboarded to the project team.

Loss Control

During the implementation of the project, the project manager should be conscious of lessening the number of losses incurred. These losses can include information, materials, staff, finances and other factors pertinent to the success of the project. The project manager can work to lessen these losses by understanding the processes that can cause losses. For example, the project manager should understand how the internal support system operates based on the manufacturer’s guidance. By understanding how the system should operate, the manager will have knowledge on how to properly use the system to avoid damaging any software or hardware components affected by the update. This will not only lessen the loss of materials but also finances as the company will not have to invest in new equipment to complete the update.

Avoiding

One of the methods the project manager can control the risks is through avoidance. An example of this is avoiding potential injuries to the project team by lessening the amount of unnecessary physical risks. If the system update requires moving computer hardware from one location to another, it would be best to use a transportation device (i.e. a wheeled cart) instead of having employees carry the heavy equipment. There will be instances that this will be easy for the manager to control and more difficult instances.

Reference
Risk Management Association. (n.d.). Operational risk management training & resources. Retrieved from Risk Management Association: https://www.rmahq.org/operational-risk/