Risk Lab Exercises

Exercise#1 Let’s look at the online book store project from a prior lecture described on the next slide: Identify some risk factors (uncertainties) that are likely to impact the triple constraints of Quality, Time, and Cost for this project Which of these risk factors can be avoided altogether? Would avoiding any of these impact the project’s chance of success? Of the risk factors you cannot avoid, which would you classify as factors that are essentially out of your control? What strategies can you identify that might exercise some influence over the remaining (presumably “controllable”) risk factors? © The KTP Company, 2006

You work for a website design firm and a potential client has contacted your company with the following possible project. The client, named Diane, is the co-owner and overall manager of a local book store (with coffee shop). Diane is feeling the need to offer an “online” presence in the face of the intense competition the store is getting from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Books-a-Million, etc. Her initial thoughts are to build a website to attract new customers and keep the loyalty of her current customers. You’ve been asked to investigate (as the likely project manager) a project for creating a system that will win this client’s business. Diane and her management team have suggested the following features, but they are open to explore others: Customers will be able to buy books in the store’s inventory online – for delivery via post or for store pickup. Customers will be able to order books not in inventory. Customers will be able to access the shop’s schedule of book signings, readings, and other promotional offers. The site should push email to “registered” customers offering them incentives to visit the store (coupons, private readings, coffee shop specials, etc.). Customers can sign up online for two different levels of loyal customer memberships (depending on the amount of purchases they made during the previous year – the site should be able to look up their buying records).

Exercise #2 Denver International Airport Case Study Read the document on this (handout) Here are some key facts about the case: Project started in 1988 with a scheduled 1993 completion date Project was several years late Cost overruns totaled almost a half of billion dollars Blame was placed on software – specifically, the schedule overrun of the $193 million automated baggage handling system (ABHS) To get the airport open in 1995, $51 million was spent to retrofit a conventional baggage system as a temporary workaround to ABHS © The KTP Company, 2006

Exercise#2 Denver International Airport Case Study (cont’d) After reading and discussing within your team the information given about the case, respond the following: Was software complexity and/or a poor software development process the only “culprits” in the DIA fiasco? How would you assess the risk management process in the DIA project? What mitigating plans and strategies might have been implemented if a good risk management plan had been in place? Can you estimate (ballpark) what some of these might have cost? Who dropped the ball? BAE? Others? © The KTP Company, 2006

Exercise#3 Recall the earlier case study for the online book store. Within your assigned team, discuss the major risks we identified for the case study and try to relate them to one or more of the major sources of risk we just discussed: Scope Quality Time & cost Contracts Human resources Communications © The KTP Company, 2006

Exercise #4 Consider again the case study for the book store that we have worked on. Recall the risk factors that your team identified for this project in Exercise#1. Do a qualitative risk assessment on each of these. Prioritize these risk factors based on your assessment. Is there additional information that would make you more confident about your analysis? If so, identify it. Will this information become available during the project? If so, what do you conclude about the process of risk assessment? © The KTP Company, 2006

Exercise#5 Consider the online book store project we worked on. Recall the prioritization that you did based on your qualitative risk assessment for this project in Exercise #4. Beginning with the highest priority risk factor, decide which of the following risk responses will apply best to each risk: Avoid the risk Transfer the risk/Share the risk Mitigate the risk Accept the risk (actively or passively) For the top two risks for which you decide the response should be to mitigate the risk, give a high-level description of suggestion mitigation strategies For the top two risks for which you decide the response should be to actively accept the risk, give a high-level description of contingency plans © The KTP Company, 2006

Exercise #6 Consider again the case study for the book store that we have worked on. Recall the risk factors that your team identified for this project in Exercise #1. Choose several of these and identify one or more risk transition indicators for each of them. How would you suggest monitoring for these risk transition indicators? Who should be responsible for the monitoring and tracking of the indicators you’ve identified? Who should be notified of the occurrence of each of these indicators? Can you define mitigation strategies that would be advantageous to implement when each of these indicators are observed? Would implementing these mitigation strategies change how you continue your monitoring for indicators of the risk events in question? Are there new risks that these mitigation strategies might introduce? © The KTP Company, 2006