What is Risk?” Please respond to the following:

• Risk concerns both positive and negative aspects of an event. Analyze why it is important to consider both perspectives when addressing risk for an organization. Include an example to support your response.
• Evaluate how threats and opportunities can be used to an organization’s advantage when developing the risk management plan. Argue the value of having a risk strategy despite the cost associated with it. Include an example to support your response.

Week 1 Discussion 2

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“Planning for Risk” Please respond to the following:

• There are three schools of thought regarding risk. The first considers the positive and negative aspects of risk, but sees them as separate. The second group believes that there are benefits from treating threats and opportunities together, while the third school does not label uncertainties, but addresses uncertainty as part of “doing the job.” Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. Respond to another student’s post (ground students will discuss their positions).
• Choose a project with risks and select one approach from Part 1 of this discussion for the project you chose. Provide a rationale for your selection and determine how this approach helps the project to be successful. Be sure to identify the project you have selected.

Week 2 Discussion 1

“Need for Risk Management” Please respond to the following:

• Analyze why it is important to address risk through the entire project life cycle. Identify three possible negative results that can occur if an organization fails to address risk in different phases of the project life cycle.
• Determine three obstacles for an organization to manage risk effectively. Suggest strategies from the perspective of a project manager to avoid the obstacles.

Week 2 Discussion 2

“Critical Success Factors” Please respond to the following:

• There are four critical success factors that are important for effective risk management: supportive organization; competent people; appropriate methods, tools and techniques; and simple, scalable process. Predict the outcome of a project if any of these critical success factors is absent for a project. Support your predictions.
• Recommend how you would approach the stakeholders of the project and persuade them that the missing critical success factor(s) must be addressed in order to maximize a successful project. Support your response.

Week 3 Discussion 1

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“Project Initiation” Please respond to the following:

• One of the most important aspects of managing risk for a project is to accurately define the size of the project. Determine the criteria that must be considered to perform the project sizing and create one additional factor with rationale.
• Suppose the size of the project was not determined correctly and a large, complex project was defined as a medium project instead. Predict the outcome of the risk management process within this organization. Include examples (i.e., the incorrect schedule of the risk management review, incorrect schedule of quantitative assessments) to support your prediction.

Week 3 Discussion 2

“Stakeholder Analysis” Please respond to the following:

• Using the “Stakeholder Analysis Template” (Appendix B2 in the Hillson and Simon text) for a company that you currently work for or you are familiar with, determine the key stakeholders and categorize them by their attitude, power, and interest dimensions. Justify the categorization for each stakeholder and post the completed appendix for the class to see.
• Analyze how stakeholder analysis affects the overall project risk management within an organization. Include an example to support your response.

Week 4 Discussion 1

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“Identifying and Mitigating Risks” Please respond to the following:

• Imagine you are considering opening a specialty pet store in your area. Create a list of the five most significant risks that you must address prior to making your decision regarding the viability of your venture. Justify the risks.
• Speculate how you would mitigate each risk identified in Part 1 of this discussion; determine the tools and methodologies you would choose to mitigate them.

Week 4 Discussion 2

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“Defining Risks” Please respond to the following:

• Imagine you have addressed the risks identified in Discussion 1. Now you have decided to proceed with your plan to open the pet store. Determine your potential stakeholders in the venture and analyze how they affect your risk management plan.
• Determine the strategies to bring this group of people together and convince them that you have a winning idea for your business. Support your response.

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Week 5 Discussion 1

“Risk Perception” Please respond to the following:

• Imagine an organization decides to hire an outside vendor to produce products instead of manufacturing them in house. Using the information presented in “Common Influences on Risk Perception” Figure 6-3 (Hillson and Simon text), determine the conscious factors, subconscious factors, and affective factors for this project. Analyze how awareness of those factors influences the decision of hiring outside vendor. In addition, analyze how those factors help improve the overall facilitation and effectiveness of the risk management.
• Determine what is important to consider when making the announcement to the affected employees. Speculate on how you would address the issues and or concerns of the impacted employees.

Week 5 Discussion 2

“Risk Responsibility” Please respond to the following:

• It is important to identify responsible individuals to be risk owners. Imagine you have identified the highest risk for your project and you plan to assign responsibilities to an individual. Compose a list of at least eight questions that you would want to have the individual answer satisfactorily before you assign the responsibilities. Provide a rationale for the creation of your list.
• Determine the feedback you would want from this individual to ensure that you choose the right risk owner for the highest risk identified from Part 1 of this discussion. Support your response.

Week 6 Discussion 1

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“Possible Risk Impacts” Please respond to the following:

• Using Table 5.4 Possible Risk Impacts, (Chapter 5 of the Heldman text), select the top-three most critical risks regardless of the size or scope of a project. Justify your selection.
• Suggest strategies for the project manager to address each type of the risks selected in Part 1 of this discussion. Support your suggestion.

Week 6 Discussion 2

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“Quantitative Risk Analysis” Please respond to the following:

• After reviewing the Monte Carlo Analysis method presented in Chapter 15 of the Hillson and Simon text, justify why a project manager would request the use of this methodology for a large, complex project. Include an example to support your response.
• When an organization cannot justify the use of a method such as Monte Carlo, recommend an alternative tool that would allow the project manager to make informed decisions. Provide a rationale for your recommendation.

Week 7 Discussion 1

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“Response Strategies” Please respond to the following:

• After a risk workshop has been completed, risk interviews are often completed with subject matter experts. Assess the value of the interviews to identify risk response strategies. Provide one example of a subject area you would expect to be addressed in the interview and explain why.
• Give your opinion as to why it is important to work high-priority opportunities prior to working high-priority threats. Analyze how those opportunities help you with the rest of your risk mitigation strategies for a project.

Week 7 Discussion 2

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“Planning for Unknowns” Please respond to the following:

• Evaluate your project management options in terms of schedule, performance, and cost for the following scenario. Support your evaluation.

An office building construction project is 80% complete in the southern Virginia area, when a major hurricane strikes, and stops progress on the worksite for 10 days while damage is assessed and repairs are completed. The project has a fixed budget and a completion date that cannot be moved any further to the right.

• From Part 1 of the ‘Planning for Unknowns” discussion, analyze how your strategy would be different if you had a contingency reserve budget, but still could not change the project completion date. Support your analysis.

Week 8 Discussion 1

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“Ongoing Risk Management” Please respond to the following:

• Analyze why it is important to constantly monitor active risks, while continuing to identify new risks. Include an example to support your response.
• In many risk programs, risks are managed individually. However, a robust risk program considers the cumulative effect of all risks. Assess the following scenario to identify the effect of multiple events on a risk management strategy:

When the Titanic struck the iceberg, the weather was bad, the lookouts were not properly equipped, the radio operator was not monitoring other ship traffic in the area, and the ship design had a major flaw in the construction of the hull’s “watertight” compartments.

Week 9 Discussion 1

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“Post-Project Review” Please respond to the following:

• Assess the importance of completing post-project reviews, and determine what project documentation must be updated as a result of the review meeting. Discuss the risks associated with failing to complete the documentation to the organization. Discuss how this should be handled when not completed from a managerial perspective.
• Identify the benefits of a complete risk register for a subsequent phase of a project. Speculate on the consequence of project management without a complete risk register. Include an example to support your response.

Week 9 Discussion 2

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“Small-Project Application” Please respond to the following:

• Compare and contrast the differences in the ATOM methodology for large versus small projects. Analyze why it is important to address these differences when preparing the initial project plan.
• Analyze the impact on the budget and other project resources if a tailored process for a small project is not employed. Include an example or scenario to support your response.

Week 10 Discussion 1

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“ATOM for Large Projects” Please respond to the following:

• Debate whether or not the cost of utilizing ATOM for large projects is justified when an organization has limited resources to dedicate to risk management efforts. Provide a description that you would present to your managers to persuade them to see matters your way.
• Select a fortune 500 company and propose how to use each step of the ATOM process for a project to implement a new human resources management system for the company.

Week 10 Discussion 2

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“Project Lessons Learned” Please respond to the following:

• Using Figure 16-2, “Sources of Risks at the Program Level” from the Hillson and Simon text as the basis for your discussion, provide three reasons why it would be appropriate to address risks at all levels in the organization.
• As the ATOM methodology has been presented in this course, its usefulness has been demonstrated for an individual project. Analyze whether or not changes would be necessary to use the ATOM methodology to manage risk for a program versus for an individual project. Include an example to support your analysis.

Week 11 Discussion 1

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“Methodology Comparasion” Please respond to the following:

• From the e-Activity, choose one project risk management methodology (not ATOM), compare and contrast the steps of the methodology you chose with ATOM. Provide an example of how each methodology is clearly used.
• Determine if you would choose ATOM as the most significant methodology for all of your project risk management. Justify whether or not you would replace the one you researched with ATOM. Support your response.

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Week 11 Discussion 2

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“Course Lessons Learned” Please respond to the following:

• Identify three concepts that you have learned in this course that will be useful for project work in your current organization.
• Explain how you would justify the use of the three concepts identified to other members of your organization.

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