Leveraging Positive Risks in Project Management

Question 1

Positive risk

A positive risk is any condition, occurrence and event that provide possible positive impacts for a project or enterprise, where through the risk the entrepreneurs would be beneficiated to meet the project outcome. Taking a risk can also have a reward for the project manager or organisation to achieve future success. Positive risk is actually good for the project management where there are some critical success factors that would be advantageous to mitigate the risk and improve the project outcome and thus the positive risk factors are beneficial for the project managers to change the strategic planning and utilise the risk for the advantageous in the project in order to meet the project aim and objectives. For example, technology is one of the positive risks that have positive impacts on the project. The project managers may face difficulties to manage the technical risk factors, but once the management team is successful to utilise the latest technology and organisational resources, it would be beneficial for them to meet the project outcome more creatively. Hence, technology is considered as a positive risk in the project for better project outcome. Tit is considered as risk, as there are several risk factors to implement the latest technology in the project. The major risk factors are such as lack of interest of the employees to adopt new technology, poor infrastructure in the workplace, presence of unskilled workforce in the workplace as well as internal conflicts, which may create serious situation to complete the project innovatively with the latest technique.

There are also other risk factors related to the technology, such as lack of training and development programs in the workplace, poor understanding, lack of communication and cooperation as well as lack of support and guidance from the senior team, which raise the issue of technological risk. However, it is considered as positive risk factors, as the project managers try to handle the existing risk related to the technology with creative solutions and arranging training and development program in order to improve the productivity and performance of the employees. Through managing the technical risk factors, the project managers can develop innovative project solutions; upgrade the technology and organisational internal infrastructure for better performance. For responding with the positive risk in the project management, the project managers are willing to exploit the positive risk by increasing the chance of occurrence, sharing it with the technical experts and senior team, enhancing it by increasing opportunity to utilise the latest technology and accepting the risk for better management. As technology is playing a crucial role in the recent project management with software and technical advancement, the project managers are trying to utilise the positive risk of technology to achieve the future project outcome with creativity and project innovation.

Strategies of risk management

There are four risk strategies that could be benefitted to the occurrence of risk in the project management. The project managers follow the four risk management strategies in order to mitigate the probability of the risk and reduce the impacts of the risk factors on the project management. The project managers and risk practitioners are willing to utilise the four common risk response strategies of avoid, transfer, mitigate and accept, as these are beneficial for the management team to tackle the existing risk factors and develop alternative solutions for achieving the project outcome. It is the role of the project manager to implement the strategies of risk management in the project in order to manage the risks, reduce the risk effects on the project and develop creative solutions, so that the staff members under the project can work efficiently to meet the project outcome by utilising latest technology and organisational infrastructure. Hence, avoid is one of the best strategies for risk management in the project, where the project managers try to eliminate the threat to protect the project from the effects of the risk, for example, cancelling the project or avoiding the innovative tactics to complete the project are effective for avoiding the project risk and choose smooth oath to progress in the project with appropriate planning, the second strategy of risk management is transfer which is simply shifting the impacts of the threats to the third party together with the ownership of this response. For example, risk insurance is one of the best tactics to transfer the risk. The project managements try to arrange insurance with full coverage return on the investment so that the financial risk in the project in case of project failure can be tackled efficiently. Hence, the transferring the risk to the third party would be advantageous for the project managers to tackle the negative risk factors in the project and promote safety and security in progressing in the project successfully.

The third strategy of risk management is to mitigate the risk by reducing the occurrence or the effects of the risk in the project. The project managers must mitigate the risk by choosing the alternative strategy in order to progress in the project strategically and achieve the project outcome. For example, in order to mitigate the risk, the project managers try to choose alternative technology, latest software and digital data management progress for conducting the project plans efficiently. On the other hand, the project managers also try to choose different suppliers and distribution network as well as hire experienced staff and technicians to change the project planning for successful mitigating of the existing risk factors in the project. The fourth strategy is to accept the risk by acknowledging the existing threats. For example, documenting the risk and outing aside the funds in case of risk occurrence would be beneficial to accept the risk and progress in the project by taking creative solutions. The four strategies for mitigating the negative risks in the project are suitable for the project managers to handle the workers and develop innovative planning to meet the project outcome. Through the process, the project managers can implement the strategies and manage the risk factors in the project successfully. The project managers must focus on avoiding and transferring he risk through shifting the threats to the third party. The project managers need to develop alternative strategic planning to manage the project risk factors tactfully. By developing creative solution, choosing latest technology and hiring experts in the project in order to mitigate the occurrence of risk and utilise the organisational infrastructure for achieving the project aim.

Secondary risks and residual risks

The secondary risks are those that arise as a direct outcome of implementing a risk response. On the other hand, the residual risks will remain after the expected risk response. The emergency plan must be developed by the project management team for tackling the secularity risk and residual risk. For example, if the project manager tries to upgrade the technology in managing the project activities innovatively, the manager try to hire the technical experts and upgrade the internal computerised system and software to mitigate the technical risk factors. However, this may raise difficulties for the staff to manage the new technology and it may hamper the productivity and performance of the whole team, which is considered to be a secondary risk in the reject. On the other hand, for example, residual risk is given by the use of automotive seat belts. The installation and use of seat belts reduces the overall severity and the probability of injury, however, the probability of injury remains there when in use that is known as residual risk factor in the system.

Question 2

Project management methodology

The project management methodology is a good methods or process that determines the best way to plan, developed, control and deliver a project throughout the continuous implementation of the progress and programs for achieving the project success. The project managers try to choose the best project management methods in order to utilise the latest technology and organisational resources for achieving the project outcome for the benefits of all the stakeholders. The major purpose of project management methodology is to be able to standardize structure and organise the working activities in the project so that the staff members and near team in the project can work efficiently and meet the objective of the project. Through structuring and organising the working activities, the project managers can develop planning and adopt the best methods for completing the project successfully. The major five domains of project management are conception and initiation, planning, execution, performance and monitoring as well as project closure, which give a systematic process tot the project managers to arrange the resources and maximise capabilities to complete the project strategically. Lean process is one of the best project management methods that would provide the best value to the project. The lean management process intends to maximise the values of the customers and minimise the resource waste in the organisation. The lean project management leads the organisation to create higher value for the customers and also take care of all the stakeholders by providing high return on their investment. This approach is effect for the customers where the organisations can handle the clients and provide the best quality products and services as per their choice and preferences.

Lean management process in the project is the best method to complete the project outcome efficiently. For example, a restaurant situated in London would like to open their online e-commerce business to serve the customers across the UK. The restaurant focuses on expanding their services through online food delivery system in order to manage their operations and provide the best quality hospitality services to the customers. In the recent pandemic situation, the restaurant aims to serve the customers at their home with the best quality and diverse food items, so that the customers can enjoy food at home with the safe and quality food items. The project of opening online services across the UK is a critical project which needs the best project management method, so that the project managers can handle the staff and develop the activities to initiate the project and achieve the future success by meeting the project aim. The lean project management is the best method for the restaurant to utilise the organisational infrastructure for creating the online market for their products and services. The digital transformation of the business is the main strategy of the restaurant, where the purpose of adopting the lean management process is to create values for the customers by optimising the organisational resources and capabilities. Hence, the project manager at the restaurant must choose the lean management method for optimising the organisational resources and hiring the expert in the restaurant who can handle the project activities. It also provides a scope to adopt the latest technology as well as minimise the waste of the organisational operations in long run. Hence, adopting lean project method will be advantageous for the project managers to develop e-commerce services and provide the best food to the customers through online food delivery app.

The major activities of the project in the restaurant are such as,

Developing the organisational website with creative content and good images of restaurant environment and food menu, so that the customers can review the menu and choose the food accordingly as per their taste and preferences. Developing the organisational official website would be important for the restaurant to handle the clients through online activities where the front desk staff members always try to help the customers for choosing the best menu at affordable price.

It is necessary to arrange funding for software development in order to implement the Information and Communication Technology or ICT as well as Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP, in order to handle the supply chain and distribution network. The restaurant will be able to adopt the best technology for ensuring digital transformation.

Developing internal infrastructure is another important project management initiative, where the project managers must develop partnership working practice by collaboration with the chef, front line staff and operational head, which can cooperate with each other, review the customer order, prepare the food and manage the distributors to deliver the food to the customers.

The financial arrangement and the organisational structure are hereby mandatory to be managed well to support the chef, staff members and distributors for working cooperatively and enhance communication to serve the customers.

The technical head and experts must be hired in the organisation for promoting their website through online food delivery application as well as handle the online customers by one to one communication, managing their feedback and providing 24*7 services.

Hence, the project managers must implement the lean project methods for better project management, where it is possible to utilise the organisational resources and lead the project initiatives strategically. The lean project management technology provides a scope to restructure the organisational resources and also improve the capabilities of the employees at the restaurant for better working process. Through lean management process, it would be possible to develop a systematic way to handle the online food delivery services for supporting the customers and providing them the best quality food items within effective time. The project management team hereby needs to focus on adopting the lean management project methods in order to hire the experts, develop organisational website and update the latest information through adopting the best technology for better management. It would be the appropriate project management method for this particular project where the project managers can handle the project initiatives and lead the staff members towards achieving the project outcome., through the lean management principles, it is possible to utilise the infrastructure of the restaurant, promote good working environment and improve understanding of the staff to handle the online food delivery system. The waste management is one of the best methods for the restaurant chain, in order to mitigate the waste and improve the business sustainability and in this context; lean management method will provide a scope to the project manager to handle the business in a suitable way. Through waste management, reducing the greenhouse gas emission and utilising alternative resources the project management team can lead in the project and maintain the quality of the products and services for creating vales for the customers. Hence, the project sponsor must select the lean project management method for this particular project to be successful efficiently. Through the lean management projects, the entrepreneur of the restaurant can create values for the customers by providing online food delivery services.

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