1 Project Management Questions Author Affiliation Instructor Course Due Date 2 Project Management Questions Question 1 One example of the upside of risk is investing in a startup company. While investing in a startup carries more risk than an established company, the potential returns can be much greater if the startup succeeds. The upside is the possibility of above-average returns. However, there is the downside risk of losing the investment if the startup fails (Milosevic, 2003). The upside of risk involves taking on more risk for the potential of higher rewards. Question 2 Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) takes a holistic, organization-wide view of risk rather than siloed risk management. ERM assesses all risks from across the organization to understand interdependencies and correlations. Traditional risk management often focuses more narrowly on specific risks within certain departments, such as financial risk, operational risk, or compliance risk. ERM provides a framework for prioritizing and responding to the most significant risks based on the organization's risk appetite and strategic objectives (Milosevic, 2003). The goal is to optimize value creation across the entire organization. Question 3 Internal drivers: Tone at the top - The board and executive management set the example for risk culture. Their values and priorities around risk trickle down through the organization. Policies and procedures - Formal rules guide employee risk behavior and establish accountability. Strong controls foster a risk-aware culture. 3 Performance incentives - Compensation and promotions should align with desired risk management practices. This reinforces good risk behaviors. Training and communication - Education around risk management principles and standards helps cultivate shared risk perspectives. Risk frameworks - A common risk language and methodology provides consistency in identifying, assessing, and responding to risks. External drivers: Industry standards and regulations - Compliance requirements and norms pressure organizations to focus on risk oversight. Market competition - Rivals' risk management capabilities may compel an organization to strengthen its risk practices. Stakeholder expectations - Investors, creditors, customers, and suppliers expect prudent risk management. Organizations feel pressure to meet those expectations. External environment - Economic conditions, political factors, social trends, and technological disruptions drive the need to monitor and adapt to external risks. Risk events - High-profile risk events and crises prompt organizations everywhere to evaluate risk preparedness. Question 4 One example of the upside of risk is a small business taking out a loan to expand operations. The risk is that the business may need help to repay the loan if the expansion is successful. However, the upside is that the expansion could significantly grow revenues and profits if executed 4 well. The upside of risk involves weighing the potential rewards of an action against the potential downside dangers. With the business expansion, the owner took a calculated risk, hoping the returns on investment outweigh the risk of debt and execution challenges. Appropriate risk-taking is often necessary for organizations and individuals to seize opportunities and achieve strategic objectives (van Well-Stam et al., 2014). The key is assessing risks and mitigating downsides while opening the door to upside potential. Question 5 A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) measures how effectively an organization achieves key business objectives. KPIs are used in risk analysis to monitor risks that could impact strategic goals (Ghahremani-Nahr et al., 2021). For Amazon, five relevant KPIs are: Revenue growth - A core priority for Amazon is driving sales growth across its e-commerce and web services businesses. Tracking revenue growth KPIs monitors risks to demand and sales. Prime subscriber retention - Retaining Prime members is critical for Amazon's recurring revenue and loyalty. Falling Prime renewal rates could indicate risks like satisfaction issues. Fulfillment efficiency - Amazon relies on fast fulfillment to satisfy customers. KPIs like units shipped per day measure operations risks that could delay deliveries. Cloud service uptime - With Amazon Web Services, uptime percentage KPIs highlight technology risks that could disrupt cloud services. 5 Employee turnover - Talent is essential for innovation at Amazon. Rising turnover points to potential HR risks like culture issues or burnout. Question 6 The Delphi technique solicits anonymous expert opinions through multiple questionnaires and controlled feedback. Experts respond to questions about project risks without being influenced by others' opinions. After each round, responses are aggregated and shared with the group. Experts can refine their views based on anonymous collective feedback (Pritchard & PMP, 2014). Delphi techniques could gather input on the most significant technical risks for an IT project, like systems integration failures or cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Multiple rounds of questions help build consensus among experts on the priority IT risks to address in risk mitigation planning for the project. Anonymity allows IT professionals to provide opinions from hierarchical positions or interpersonal dynamics without bias (Virine & Trumper, 2017). Controlled feedback helps the group converge on the most urgent IT-related risks for the project. Question 7 Define - Clarify the problem of declining room service revenue and set a target for improvement. Get stakeholder alignment. Measure - Collect data on room service orders, revenues, complaints, staffing levels, menu options, delivery times, costs, and guest satisfaction ratings. Statistical tools like Pareto charts can identify top issues. Analyze - Analyze the data to find root causes. Hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and ANOVA can pinpoint factors driving the revenue decrease. 6 Improve - Develop solutions to address the root causes. Options could include menu changes, order processing improvements, promoting room service, or bolstering late-night staffing. Design of experiment methods can test solutions (Project Management Institute n.d, 2013). Control - Implement the solutions that improve key metrics. Control charts will monitor room service revenues and guest satisfaction to ensure sustained improvements. Standardize the optimized processes. Statistics like correlation analysis and confidence intervals provide insights into the drivers, allow valid data-driven decisions, and quantify the reliability of improvements (Virine & Trumper, 2017). Question 8 Plan - Identify an opportunity, analyze the problem, and plan actions to address the issue. For example, a project sees high defect rates in testing. The team plans revised QA procedures. Do - Implement the planned actions. The project team pilots the new QA processes on a small scale first. Check - Evaluate the results of the changes. The team tracks defects found after implementing the new QA processes. Act - If the changes were effective, standardize and spread the new processes. If not, go back to the Plan stage and try different approaches. The team would institutionalize the improved QA processes if they reduced defects. 7 For project quality, PDCA provides an iterative approach to test and refine enhancements to processes like requirements gathering, QA, reviews, or integration testing. Applying PDCA helps engrain continuous quality improvement. Question 9 Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to identify opportunities for incremental enhancements and implement small changes that improve processes, capabilities, and outcomes. It relies on empirical data, employee input, and root cause analysis to drive steady gains (Pritchard & PMP, 2014). An example is a manufacturing plant that consistently looks for defects, inefficiencies, and wasteful activities on the production line. They continually optimize productivity and quality by addressing minor issues through PDCA problem-solving. Combining continuous improvement with Lean methodologies accelerates results. Lean's focus on reducing waste and empowering employees aligns well (Edwards et al., 2019). Kaizen events centered on specific process improvements can rapidly implement and spread changes— lean tools like 5S and Just-in-Time aid in uncovering improvement opportunities. Question 10 Inputs: Quality management plan - Outlines the quality policies, objectives, roles, activities and tools Process improvement plan - Details plans and tools for optimizing processes Quality metrics - Defines metrics to evaluate outcomes and performance Quality checklists - List items to inspect against standards 8 Quality control measurements - Data collected through quality control activities Outputs: Quality reports - Summarize quality inspection results and analyses Change requests - Recommended corrective actions to address non-conformities Project management plan updates - Changes to plans based on quality control findings Project document updates - Updates to all documents impacted by quality control results The inputs provide quality standards, measurements, and plans to use. The outputs detail quality inspection findings and recommended improvements that become feedback loops into project activities and plans. 9 References Edwards, P. J., Serra, P. V., & Edwards, M. (2019). Managing project risks. Hoboken, NJ: WileyBlackwell. Ghahremani-Nahr, J., & Nozari, H. (2021). A Survey for Investigating Key Performance Indicators in Digital Marketing. International Journal of Innovation in Marketing Elements, 1(1), 1-6. Milosevic, D. Z. (2003). Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons. Pritchard, C. L., & PMP, P. R. (2014). Risk management: concepts and guidance. CRC Press. Project Management Institute, A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® guide), Fifth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc. 2013. [VitalSource version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781935589815/cfi/0 van Well-Stam, D., Lindenaar, F., & Van Kinderen, S. (2004). Project risk management: An essential tool for managing and controlling projects. Kogan Page Publishers. Virine, L., & Trumper, M. (2017). Project risk analysis made ridiculously simple (Vol. 13). Imperial College Press.
