Reference no: EM132648671

Task 1 - Risk Management Plan

Assuming that your organisation has been awarded contracts to undertake the following projects:

Project 1 - Website redevelopment and hosting and maintenance services for Destination: Australia

This project is for the technical upgrade of the Archives' website Destination: Australia. In order to ensure the best value for money and optimal functionality (for the website and related exhibition interactive) going forward, it is necessary for the website to be transferred from a proprietary CMS to a commonly available CMS (including, but not limited to, an Open Source CMS).

The website will enable the National Archives of Australia to collect user contributed data about the photographic collection featured on the site. The interface must be modern, engaging and user-friendly, designed to meet the needs of people of all ages, and differing levels of computer and English literacy. The website must interact successfully with an exhibition interactive via an existing API. There is an option for hosting, maintenance and support services to be provided from contract execution until 31 December 2019.

Project 2 - Re-development of Intranet

A redevelopment of the Clean Energy Regulator staff Intranet into SharePoint 2013

Project 3 - Database for community engagement - Software As A Service Customer Relationship Management system (SAAS CRM)

The National Radioactive Waste Management Facility project is currently in Phase 2, best described as the technical assessment and continued community consultation phase. One site has been chosen to progress to this stage while other as yet unknown sites may also progress to this stage. The project team requires a database (Software As A Service Customer Relationship Management system (SAAS CRM) to effectively and confidentially manage large volumes of data, including names, addresses, opinions of community members and contact details. This will assist in ongoing community engagement.

The system must be fully operational (tried and tested) within two weeks of the commencement of the proposed contract. The project, and related community engagement, will be ongoing for years. Access to maintenance and advice will be

Your task is to create a comprehensive Program Risk Management Plan that covers the following:

• Program Overview - This section defines the program vision, its business value, and projected outcome. It may include a summary of the program scope, dependencies and constraints. This introductory portion may also include success criteria for measuring program outcomes.
• Schedule Management - A roadmap or work breakdown structure may be included in this section along with a description of how scheduling will be managed, updated, and monitored. Roles and responsibilities related to scheduling should be made clear.
• Change Management - Provide a clear process for handling program changes, including who can submit change requests, how and where those requests will be tracked, and who can approve changes.
• Communications Management - A detailed communications plan can help prevent project issues and ensure that information is distributed appropriately. Use this section to define the frequency and type of communication to be provided, who will be providing and receiving the communications, and other guidelines or expectations.
• Cost Management - This section may include detailed information on program budget and expenditures as well as the parties responsible for managing costs, who can approve changes to the program budget, how project budgets will be measured and monitored, and guidelines for reporting. Funding and funding issues.

• Procurement Management - Describe responsibilities related to procurement throughout a program lifecycle. Identify who is responsible for vendor relationships, dealing with contracts, purchasing, and other activities.
• Project Scope Management - Will the project scope be defined in a scope statement, WBS, or another method? How will the scope be measured? Who is responsible for managing and approving the program scope? Address these questions as well as any guidelines related to the scope change process that were not identified in the change management section.
• Risk Management - Describe how risks will be reported, monitored, and assessed, including how they can be submitted and who is responsible for dealing with them.
• Staffing Management - This section lists program requirements for staffing, including specific resources and the timeframes in which they are needed, plus training. It describes how staff will be managed for the duration of the program.
• Stakeholder Management - Use this section to identify stakeholders and strategies for managing them, including who is responsible for collecting and reporting stakeholder information.
• Program Governance - Describe any governing groups, what authority they have, and their responsibilities within the program. You can include information on how often they will meet, how escalated decisions should be presented to and handled by the governing groups, how their decisions will be communicated, and when program reviews will occur.

As a basis the following template should be used and adapted as required. As you develop the plan, include reference to AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 Risk Management Principles and Guidelines and outline how the proposed risk management system meets the requirements of the standard. Insert this information into the plan where relevant.
Once you have developed the Program Risk Management Plan create a report that will outline a leadership strategy to ensure that the plan is correctly implemented. The strategy and report must outline how you will:

• manage the program in accordance with plans
• review progress, analyse variance and initiate risk responses
• ensure risks are assigned and monitored across the program at agreed intervals
• assess issues for impact and remedial actions authorised

Risk Assessment

Identification
Risk identification involves determining which risks or threats are likely to affect the program. It involves the identification of risks or threats that may lead to program outputs being delayed or reduced, outlays being advanced or increased and/or output quality (fitness for purpose) being reduced or compromised.

For most large/complex programs, a number of high level risks should have been identified during the program initiation stage - these should be used as the basis for a more thorough analysis of the risks facing the program.

One of the most difficult things is ensuring that all major risks are identified. A useful way of identifying relevant risks is defining causal categories under which risks might be identified. For example, corporate risks, business risks, program risks and infrastructure risks. These can be broken down even further into categories such as environmental, economic, political, human, etc. Another way is to categorise in terms of risks external to the program and those that are internal.

See the Program Management Risk Identification Tool for some useful prompts in identifying program risks. The Australian Standard for Risk Management AS/NZS 4360: 2004 Appendix D refers to generic sources of risk.

The wording or articulation of each risk should follow a simple two-step approach:

1. Consider what might be a ‘trigger' event or threat (eg. ‘poor quality materials causes costs to rise') - several triggers may reveal the same inherent risk; then

2. Identify the risk - use a ‘newspaper headline' style statement - short, sharp and snappy (eg. ‘budget blow out') then describe the nature of the risk and the impact on the program if the risk is not mitigated or managed (eg. program delayed or abandoned, expenditure to date wasted, outcomes not realised, government embarrassed etc).

Use the Risk Register (see Appendix A) to document the results.

For large or complex programs it can be beneficial to use an outside facilitator to conduct a number of meetings or brainstorming sessions involving (as a minimum) the Program Manager, Program Team members, Steering Committee members and external key stakeholders. Preparation may include an environmental scan, seeking views of key stakeholders etc.

For a small program, the Program Manager may develop the Risk Register perhaps with input from the Program Sponsor/Senior Manager and colleagues, or a small group of key stakeholders.

It is very easy to identify a range of risks that are outside the program and are actually risks to the business area during output delivery, transition or once operational mode has been established. These are not program risks and should not be included in the Program Risk Register, but referred to the relevant Business Owner. It may be appropriate to submit an Issues Paper to the Steering Committee recommending formal acceptance by the relevant Business Owner for ongoing monitoring and management of specific risks.
See the Program Management Fact Sheet: Developing a Risk Management Plan and the Risk Identification Tool for more information on how to undertake risk identification.
In this section specify:
• what risk identification process has been undertaken (ie. brainstorm, facilitated session, scan by Program Manager etc);
• any categories used to assist in the identification or relevant risks;
• when the risk identification process occurred; and
• who was involved.
Analysis and Evaluation
Once risks have been identified they must be analysed by determining how they might affect the success of the program. Generally the impact of a risk will realise one or any combination of the following consequences:
• Program outcomes (benefits) are delayed or reduced;
• Program output quality is reduced;
• Timeframes are extended;
• Costs are increased.
Once analysed, risks should be evaluated to determine the likelihood of a risk or threat being realised and the seriousness, or impact, should the risk occur.
'Likelihood' is a qualitative measure of probability to express the strength of our belief that the threat will emerge (generally ranked as Low (L), Medium (M) or High (H)).
'Seriousness' is a qualitative measure of negative impact to convey the overall loss of value from a program if the threat emerges, based on the extent of the damage (generally ranked as Low (L), Medium (M), High (H) or Extreme).

From this risks will be graded as A, B, C, D or N according to the following matrix:

The ratings for likelihood and seriousness determine a current grading for each risk that in turn provides a measure of the program risk exposure at the time of the evaluation.

In this section specify:
• How the identified risks could potentially impact on the program in terms of the four categories of consequence (eg. x have potential to delay or reduce program outcomes/reduce output quality etc);
• Summarise the distribution of risks according to the grading (number of ‘A' Grade risks, ‘B'
Grade risks etc)
• List any ‘A' Grade risks.

Risk Mitigation
Mitigation of risks involves the identification of actions to reduce the likelihood that a threat will occur (preventative action) and/or reduce the impact of a threat that does occur (contingency action). This strategy also involves identifying the stage of the program when the action should be undertaken, either prior to the start of or during the program.

Risk mitigation strategies to reduce the chance that a risk will be realised and/or reduce the seriousness of a risk if it is realised have been developed. The following table is useful to determine how risks will be treated in terms of preparation and/or deployment of mitigation strategies during the life of the Program. Mitigation strategies are usually only prepared and/or deployed for Grades A through to C, however where an existing risk graded at D appears likely to be upgraded, mitigation strategies should be prepared.

Attachment:- Risk Management Plan.rar