Discussion Board Replies

 Replies: Respond to 2 classmates, adding to the discussion by commenting on their discussion of strategy. What do you feel the most important strategy identified is, and why? Be sure to include new information in your reply in order to advance the discussion. Each reply must be 200–250 words and reference at least 1 peer-reviewed source or include at least 1 instance of biblical integration in addition to a text. The instructor is looking for substantial, thoughtful, and critical interaction.

Post #1

Vivian White

DB4-VIvian

Risk Strategy

           According to the reading, the risk management strategy gives an outline that provides a structured and coherent approach to acknowledge, assess, and manage risk (Wilson, 2015). This process builds a regular update to review what assessments are needed during the new development. Many project managers have skills, along with experience, to develop a risk strategy plan to monitor activities and quality of work performance (Chang, Hwang, Deng, & Zhao, 2018). During the assessment, they also include cost and schedule to understand the needs in each activity. In the case study, the Saltwater Moving company must identify the risks involving the moving of the house, the residential streets closure, and the primary functions to prepare for the move. Putting together the five key elements of managing this risk includes but not limited to:

Monitoring and controlling risk around the location of the move (Wilson, 2015).

Analyzing the risk information, which could include the outline of events leading to the moving of the home (Wilson, 2015).

Identifying potential risk in closing the streets in a residential area which includes people walking or moving around the equipment (Wilson, 2015).

Monitoring and controlling risk dealing with the scheduling and the cost of the budget to complete the job (Wilson, 2015).

Closing risk events are when the structure or move is complete, and the deliverable has been met (Wilson, 2015).

Top Priority Risks

           Once the project manager starts the move, there should be several top priority risk sections that should include information and tools (Wilson, 2015). The tools are needed to document how the project is developing and alleviate the risk as it is being accounted for. In the case study, the top priorities they should look for could include lifting of the house onto the equipment, moving the home, the contractors scheduling the utilities being extended temporarily across the street. Monitoring these activities with tools can give the project manager warning signs to act before moving the home or at least minimize the risk of delaying the move (Wilson, 2015).

Triggers and Controls:

            One of the early warning triggers to assist during the move is determining the plans that were made with the contract staff to manage the traffic as well as controlling the pedestrians when they are moving around downtown (Wilson, 2015). According to the reading, using a scheduling control to consider the amount of time spent in the operational activities can suggest the parameter of activity and limited the options of other stopgap measures ensuring the quality of services (Wilson, 2015).

           The project manager can use a project scope and resource control at the beginning of the project to define the deliverables that control the resources to provide high-level components of work activity to the project process (Wilson, 2015). In the Saltwater case study, analyzing the structural integrity of the house before using the equipment to move can determine the probability of any possible damage that can cause during the move. Knowing how to engage the resources and quality controls will help the contractor build very diligently in moving to a new house while creating a new foundation (Keshk, Maarouf, & Annany, 2018).

Biblical Integration

           In life, we all must take the risk and allow God to develop and monitor our steps while understanding the importance of managing projects. Doing right by people as we provide services to manage projects is the beginning of building strong relationships. According to the bible, Mark 8:36 (ESV), “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul.” Never risk your integrity or accept poor quality of business ethics when monitoring activities for clients. Risk Management Strategies reflects the decisions you make with specifying procedure and methodologies used to perform the task.

References

Chang, T., Hwang, B., Deng, X., & Zhao, X. (2018). Identifying political risk management strategies in international construction projects. Advances in civil engineering, 2018, 1-11. doi:10.1155/2018/1016384

Keshk, A. M., Maarouf, I., & Annany, Y. (2018). Special studies in management of construction project risks, risk concept, plan building, risk quantitative and qualitative analysis, risk response strategies. Alexandria engineering journal, 57(4), 3179-3187. doi:10.1016/j.aej.2017.12.003

Wilson, Randal. (2015) Mastering risk and procurement in project management: A guide to planning, controlling, and resolvin. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780133838497/

Post #2

Forum 4 (Module 7)

Topic: Risk Strategy

MGMT 610-D01 LUO

Arnechia Washington

Top Risks

           The difficulty to manage risks comes from the complexity of construction projects (Baudrit, Taillandier, Tran, & Breyesse, 2019). Risk monitoring includes a continuous process to systematically track and evaluate the performance of risk mitigation plans against established metrics throughout the acquisition process. The general idea in risk monitoring is to have tools in place that give the project manager real-time data that can be analyzed to ensure work activities are being performed correctly and to assess any initial signs of problems or risk events beginning to happen (Wilson, 2015). The top priority risks in this case study are lifting the house onto moving equipment, unreliable contractors for utility management, and the building contractor creating a perfect foundation at the new location. There is currently a 10% probability of catastrophic damage during the process of relocating the home. The project cannot happen if the street is not clear of cables crossing the street, pedestrians, and bystanders. Lastly, the new foundation is dependent on the contractor cooperating. This agreement does not sound like it is stable and finalized.

Early Warning Triggers

In the process of being able to identify risk, it is a critical Project Management tool to be able to identify specific indicators, or triggers, to anticipate uncertainty before it becomes an issue. Identification of triggers happened during this risk identification process and tracked during the risk monitoring and control process. Triggers should be identified for as many risk events as possible, and in the monitoring process, the project manager would then be looking for these initial signs or triggers as a first indicator a risk is imminent, and they would be in position to initiate a risk response as a proactive tool rather than the normal reactive response (Wilson, 2015). Some early warning triggers that could assist with the Saltwater Moving project are the builder does not confirm the building of the new foundation, lousy weather, and the traffic control contractors start missing working. As it is critical during Project Management, managing risk appropriately, being able to control those triggers is pertinent to efficient operations. This process intends to do just that. Once this process is implemented and is operational, risk management will become considerably more manageable.

Strategies for Quality and Resource Control

Quality control is the implementation of quality processes to achieve the project and product quality requirements. Management defines programs and methods that establish milestones for projects and benchmarks for quality. They let management verify progress and institute corrective actions when appropriate. Finally, they allow staff to report back on the results of any actions taken. When the project team submits their status reports to the project manager, and the PM evaluates the information and verifies that it is accurate before including it in their overall project performance report. The act of validating the information is a quality control strategy. The PM is determining the quality of a project deliverable. Other strategies that project managers may implement to control projects include critical path calculations, order approval structures, and external progress checks. Critical path methods identify the completion of essential tasks scheduled for the entire project to proceed. Project managers may require that all significant orders be signed off by them for cost control. In regards to the case study, Project managers may request that the traffic control contract possesses a clause for denial of payment if any one of the contractors is not on-site the day of the move. External milestones, such as licenses, permits, and regulatory approvals, give an independent indication of work progress. Performing a progress check on the scheduling of cutting off the utilities, arranging the removal of hanging cables across the streets, and confirming the building of the new foundation by the building contractor will ensure the quality of the work on this project is acceptable.

           The term resource has been consistently defined in the research literature as a nondirectional physical, psychological, social, or organizational characteristic that functions to achieve work goals or reduce demands on the physiological and psychological cost of work (Lee, Rocco, & Shuck, 2020). Control resources are the new process introduced in PMBOK 6th version. This is all about controlling and monitoring the consumption or usage of physical resources on the project. Physical resources are servers, tools, equipment, infrastructure, machinery, materials, facilities, and so on. In regards to people, there’s a manage team process. Some known strategies are alternative analysis, trend analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. If there is a resource utilization variance, a Project manager may use an alternatives analysis. To weigh in the impact and benefit from each of the available alternatives. For example, the process of moving the two-story home changes due to equipment failure. The PM will look for other options for moving the structure. Trend analysis forecasts whether the project needs more resources for the planned work sooner than later. According to the book of Ecclesiastes, it reads, “Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth” (Ecclesiastes 11:2, English Standard Version). Hiring more traffic controllers before the project kicks off just in case some are a no-show or the project requires more. The cost-benefit analysis comes into the picture when there is a deviation in resource utilization and needs to put some corrective plan in place. In the case of building contractor not cooperating, the PM may request a contract with another builder to deviate the incomplete work of the previous contractor.

References

Baudrit, C., Taillandier, F., Tran, T. T. P., & Breysse, D. (2019). Uncertainty processing and risk monitoring in construction projects using hierarchical probabilistic relational models: Uncertainty processing and risk monitoring in construction projects. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 34(2), 97-115. doi:10.1111/mice.12391

Lee, J. Y., Rocco, T. S., & Shuck, B. (2020). What is a resource: Toward a taxonomy of resources for employee engagement. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications. doi:10.1177/1534484319853100

Project Management Institute (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (6th ed.). Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute. ISBN: 9781628251845.

Wilson, R (2015). Mastering risk and procurement in project management: A guide to planning, controlling, and resolving unexpected problems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ISBN: 9780133838497.

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