Institutional
A risk is defined as an uncertain condition or an event whose occurrence can cause a positive or an adverse effect on a project’s objectives. A risk can be either positive or negative in nature. A positive risk is considered as an advantageous opportunity for either an individual or a corporate entity; it involves replacement of the previous infrastructure with a new one (Lock, 2013). On the other hand, negative risks are the unwanted phenomenon that can cause the problems thus derailing the project. Looking into the problematic network infrastructure, which is problematic in certain areas of state rendering the existing infrastructure not to be able to support the deployment of the email system in all the necessary areas the risk portrayed in this item, is a negative risk. The problematic infrastructure is unwanted and derails the smooth flow of the project. The inability of this infrastructure to support the deployment further reinstates the negativity of this item. This risk can be managed using accept and plan contingency which is a risk management strategy for both negative and positive opportunities. This is because, even if the risk is considered as negative, there is an underlying infrastructure, which supports other email systems, thus must be handled with care. The risk probability in this item may be considered as low as it continues to support other existing systems. However, the impact of the risk is high because it hinders the advancement of the project.
The second item, which involves several vendors willing to develop specialized email address books and templates for the users of the state on the selection of their product, is a positive risk. It is positive because it is advantageous to both the state and the vendors in the end. The state will benefit by getting the unique address books and templates thus speeding up the project, on the other hand, the vendors will gain recognition by the selection of their product. The risk strategy to be used in this situation is exploiting, sharing, and enhancing. This is because various vendors are willing to develop the address book and the template for the email thus trough sharing ideas and exploiting the address book from the vendors, they will come up with an enhanced system and templates. The risk probability of this item is high while its impact is low since there are many vendors. The third issue, where at the resource planning stage it comes to the realization that the project lacks two network engineers and a business analyst who would be vital in the documentation of the project is a negative risk, the absence of these team members will slow down the project thus considered as unwanted. This condition will force the project manager to look for the engineers and the business analyst, by doing this; the manager shall have avoided the derailment of the project thus employing a negative risk strategy. The probability of such a risk is very high with a severe impact on the smooth flow of the project.
The fourth item is a negative risk. The key candidate products under consideration are important to the organization thus not being covered in the existing budget plan is a huge blow and will severely affect the licensing operation. The project manager can counter this risk by avoiding, transferring, and mitigating the risk as a strategy. The anticipated twenty percent increase can be borrowed from a less important product which is included in the budget. The probability of such risk is very high with a severe impact because it will affect the whole project. Lastly, the fifth item is a positive risk because the products to be purchased substantial discounts which are advantageous to the project team regarding cost and also the statewide Ohio Department of taxation's interest in adopting one of the email systems brings about recognition and the opportunity to the team. This risk can be managed using accept or plan a contingency, a strategy for managing both negative and positive risks. This is because the products only offer discounts for more users thus the manager must do proper planning in case of fewer users. However, with the statewide Ohio Department of Taxation considering adopting the email systems, the risk probability is medium and with a low impact since there will be increased the number of users of the products to be purchased.
The project management tools vary regarding requirement; some may require supporting software while others can just be used manually. The Program Evaluation Technique PERT and Gant charts are some of the project management tools that can be used in managing the projects (Fincher et al., 2001). PERT planning and control tool is used to monitor and define tasks necessary to complete a project. For PERT charts to be effective, they have often used interchangeably with Critical Path Method (CPM) tables with the only difference being in the computation of the task times.
The planning of PERT chart involves
Identifying the specific activities
Determining the sequence of the activities
Construction of a network diagram
Determine the critical path.
Updating the part chart as the project progresses.
References
Lock, D. (2013). Project management. Burlington, VT : Gower.
Fincher, S., Petre, M., & Clark, M. (2001). Computer science project work: Principles and pragmatics. London: Springer.
