Risk Response Plan.

OGL-421: PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT

CAITLYN NEIGHBOR
Risk Rating
KEY: “C” INDICATES CONTINGENCY; “P” INDICATES PREVENTATIVE

Rank Type Source Category Rating T or O

Risk Action Plan
Response
1 Communication  Document planned project check-ins and P Inadequate Communication 6.7 Threat,
Breakdown ensure calendar invites are sent to and received communication, High Escalation
by all responsible parties. ambiguity, lack of Probabilit
 Timeline is agreed upon by project team and alignment or y
Very High
coordinators. commitment,
Impact
 Fixed communication path is established for separated
disseminating information, such as Slack or geographic location,
email, to ensure all project team members can resource
find information easily. performance issues
 Escalate the issue to project team lead or C
sponsor. Alert of consequences to timeline and
constraints if established timeline is not met.
 Conduct a post-mortem with project team to
identify areas for improvement and pitfalls to
ensure a smoother remainder of the project.
2 Scope cannot  Gather leads from each area of the project P Scope is ill-defined, Scope, 2.3 Opportunity,
be supported team and assess the possible paths forward infeasible design, Requirements, Low Enhance
given the current constraints. Make every lack of project Project Probabilit
effort to preserve the scope as it was defined at management Management, y
High
the beginning of the project. experience and/or Communication
Impact
 Negotiate plan requirements with project inexperienced
sponsors in context of requirements. resources.
 Alert Tyrell Corporation project sponsors that C
the timeline changes will impact project
completion. If we are to meet the same scope
requirement, we will need to adjust accordingly

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 in other areas.
 Redefine project requirements to gain the
maximum benefit from the allotted remaining
time.
3 Server Outages  Backup progress frequently and ensure that P External or External, 0.6 Threat,
every measure is taken to utilize autosave environmental Technical Very Low Mitigation
functionality. breakdown Probabilit
 If possible, provide a UBS (Uninterrupted y
Medium
Power Supply) to teammates to outages do not
Impact
impact work completed.
 Analyze high-load server times and any trends
or causes for outages in the past.
 Analyze recovered work as soon as possible and C
take inventory for anything that has been lost.
Host a postmortem on the event.
 Communicate loss and corresponding repeated
work that will be required to recover from the
event.
4 Lengthy  Obtain a team member experienced in robust P Complex Design, 3.9 Threat,
Debugging and QA and debugging process to create the requirements, Technical High Mitigation
QA Process process around the website. development Probabilit
 Test consistently throughout the project and approach, technical y
Medium
iterate on issues quickly. cohesion with
Impact
 Ensure QA plan has consistency in steps multiple developers
repeated through each phase so the same tests working on
are being performed in each step. different pieces that
 Document and report areas of defect or lacking must work
functionality and share with project team in together.
project status updates.
 Reassess time requirements in context of lost C
time over lengthy debugging.
 Pinpoint area of concern and escalate to team

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 lead for further analysis.
 Prioritize completion of process and where
needed, remove or redesign modules that are
causing larger issues if the time tradeoff will
overall save time over continuing to debug
existing setup.
5 Change  Robustly document statement of scope and P Stakeholder Change 3.8 Opportunity,
requests include in project plan. This plan is negotiated, interference, Management, Medium Enhance
conflict with signed-off on and shared with the executive obtaining sponsor Approvals and Probabilit
requirements sponsor team. approval on project Red Tape y
High
 Where too many change requests appear, progress.
Impact
reinforce with project plan agreement to push
back.
 Keep approval flow isolated to Eldon Tyrell and
Rachael rather than welcoming other
executives from Tyrell to weigh in and need to
come to consensus.
 Alert Tyrell Corporation team of risk of not C
hitting 3-week timeline and what requirements
will be necessary to complete the project in
scope.
 If time cannot be adjusted, agree on what
trade-offs must be taken, such as increasing the
over-time incentive for project teams, requiring
more budget, or reducing the original scope
required for the project.
6 Ambiguous  Distribute project charter and plan to project P Inadequate defined Project 2.3 Threat,
responsibility teams and host in project team wiki for easy ownership of tasks Management, Low Mitigation
for project access. in project plan, Communication Probabilit
tasks  Ensure that each step has clear ownership, with communication y
High
names and dates, assigned to them. breakdown.
Impact
 Make every attempt to maintain the same

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 project team for the length of the project,
without additions or removals.
 Instate regular project status meetings across
the entire project team of all areas of expertise
as well as reinforce the importance of 1:1’s
with each project team lead and project team
member.
 Reassess the effectiveness of the project status C
updates and make updates to enhance clarity.
 Assess the work that has been completed and
divide up the remaining work with named
ownership.
 Hold a postmortem on this event and
determine what shortcomings may exist in the
process.
7 Underestimate  Include a modest buffer in task estimates in P Uncertain Project 3.9 Threat,
task updating the project plan, where possible. requirements, Management, High Mitigation
completion Take advantage of every time surplus by unrealistic time Requirements Probabilit
time moving quickly to the next task. allocation y
Medium
 Reinforce the use of time tracking to analyze
Impact
time deficits and surplus. Analyze these areas
to implement iterative changes across project
phases.
 Adjust the capacity planning based on work
completed over the course of the project at
both an individual and team level. Adapt the
workload in response.
 Consider trade-offs required to maximize C
completion with remaining time left.
 Compare capacity planning to the remaining
work required to calculate a realistic plan and
deliverable for the project.

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Reflection

Of the 7 risks that I have identified, I categorized 5 as threats and 2 as opportunities. For the threats, my primary method of response is mitigation

because “in risk mitigation, action is taken to reduce the probability of occurrence and/or impact of a threat. Early mitigation action is often more effective than

trying to repair the damage after the threat has occurred” (Project Management Institute, 2017, p. 442). In my risk plan attached, I discuss the ways in which I

proactively attempt to prevent the risk from occurring in the first place. This strategy applies to 4 of the 5 threats identified, with “Communication Breakdown”

using the response action of Escalation. While the project manager should always work to keep communication lines open, when there is a party that is outside

of the project manager’s responsibility, such as Rachael, that is creating a great deal of risk by operating outside of the agreed rules of engagement, escalation to

Eldon makes sense. “Escalation is appropriate when the project team or the project sponsor agrees that a threat is outside the scope of the project or that the

proposed response would exceed the project manager's authority” (Project Management Institute, 2017, p. 442).

For the area of opportunities, I identified both “Change requests conflict with requirements “and “Scope cannot be supported” because the timeline is

quite tight and if the grandiose plans for scope and function simply cannot be met, this can present a valuable opportunity pivot the plan to something more

realistic, more directly related to the overall goal, and potentially an overall benefit to the resources at hand. I selected the response action to enhance because

“these strategies involve changing the level of overall project risk to optimize the chances of achieving the project's objectives” (Project Management Institute,

2017, p. 445) so we have the flexibility to make the current situation suit the overall project objectives.

Overall, I have chosen a response plan across the various risks that involves mitigating risk as much as possible through proactive attention and quick

thinking if they do ultimately occur.

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References
Project Management Institute (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide)  (6th ed.). Newtown Square, PA:
Project Management Institute.

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