Risk Management in Project Portfolios

This assignment delves into the complexities of risk management within project portfolios. It goes beyond individual project risks, examining a contingency perspective on managing overall portfolio risk. The document explores emerging trends and passing fads in project management research, particularly focusing on risk management techniques and their theoretical frameworks. It also touches upon topics like project governance, agile project management, and the influence of stakeholders in successful risk mitigation.

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
A) PID.........................................................................................................................................1
B) Stakeholder analysis...............................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Gantt Chart..................................................................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Risk register................................................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
A) Importance of quality risk management plan for the project.................................................9
B) PRINCE 2.............................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Project management is all about initiating, planning, controlling and closing the work of
the team in order to accomplish desired goals and objectives. The QA Higher Education (QAHE)
is planning a full refurbishment of its teaching rooms and computing labs in London Campus
(London students) to ensure that students and staff; all have an excellent learning environment
and access to the latest technology to support their studies and teaching. In respect to this, the
report will cover a budget plan for project including budget information, stakeholder analysis,
starting and ending date, project sponsor and manager, objectives, work force and risks, etc. A
risk assessment plan is also discussed related to project and a short report is explained at the end
of report to formulate strategies and plans to reduce the impact of risks on project.
TASK 1
A) PID
PDI: Project initiation document or project charter is a short summary of whole project usually
produced at the beginning of project. This will help to determine an overall idea of major
parameters and concepts involved in project effectively (Eskerod, Huemann and Savage, 2015).
It can be said that sufficient amount of time, labour, budget and resources is required in order to
refurbish the computing labs and teaching rooms of QA at London Campus. The PDI shows
estimation of budget, goals, objectives, timescale and risks associated with project.
Title of Project “Full refurbishment of teaching rooms and computing labs in the
London Campus to ensure that students and staff; all have an
excellent learning environment.”
Estimated Budget £100000
How did derive this
number?
Covered in Appendix section.
Start Date 12/04/18
Finish Date 28/08/18
Project Sponsor Managing Director
Project Manager Steve Jacob
Main objectives To refurbish teaching rooms and computing labs
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 To improve Infrastructure of Hardware, Software and
Network
 To improve IT support Desk
 To Innovate Technology
 To decorate with furniture and essential equipment
 To provide excellent learning environment
Suggested Approach 'Product-based planning'
Major Risks  Pollution
 Financial Risk
 Accidents
 Operational and Technical Risks
 Time management
 Quality
 Human resources
 Suppliers
 Performance Risk
Key Staff and team
members
Name Role
Neil Jonathan, Peter Bell and
Ben Smith
Supervisor
Tom Hanks, Christian Martin
and Jason
Services Engineers
Lily McGuire, Daisy Mason,
Alex Frost and Brody Roy
Technology and Information
Experts
Billey Bowden and Merry
Johnson
Architect
2

Steve smith, Husaain malik and
Rozi Shah
Financial Advisor
Ali Lohawala, Peter Parker and
Shnaya Poker
Decorators
References
B) Stakeholder analysis
It can be said that stakeholder analysis is an effective approach towards analysing and
collecting qualitative information and data to determine stakeholder’s interest while doing the
project (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017). The stakeholder involvement and analysis is
given as below for the project of refurbishment of computing lab and teaching class.
Stakeholders Priorities Interest
Project Sponsor High High
Project manager High High
Project Client High High
Contract Labours Low Low
Architect Moderate High
Decorators Low High
Supervisors Moderate High
Financial Advisors Moderate Low
Information and Technology
Experts
Moderate High
Service Engineers Moderate Low
Role of stakeholders
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Project sponsor: For this project, managing director is the sponsor. The role of sponsor is to
provide information regarding development areas and to pass the budget for operational
activities.
Project manager: Project managers has an important role that planning, execution and
monitoring are some responsibilities of project manager. The manager is also responsible for
managing operational activities (Teller, Kock and Gemünden, 2014).
Contract labours: Contract labours are crucial for project redevelopment. The interest of labour
is low and priorities are moderate that they perform tasks provided by project manager. This will
help to drive the project’s speed effectively.
Project client: The project client is QA Higher Education who have given responsibilities to
project manager in order to provide recommendations towards changes and budget plan (Pollack
and Adler, 2015). This will help employees to determine their work accordingly in order to
complete the project on time.
Team members: Team members in this project are IT experts, financial advisors, service
engineers, architects and decorators. The main role of all members is to complete their tasks in
order to increase effectiveness and quality of project effectively.
Thus, it can be said that a budget plan should consider some major elements such as
resources, equipment and financial activities in order to manage and control project within a
particular time period (Cagliano, Grimaldi and Rafele, 2015). This will help to increase
effectiveness of project which lead towards management and completion of tasks effectively.
The main focus will be on refurbishment of computer lab and teaching room in order to provide
peaceful and effective learning environment for both students and teachers at London Campus.
TASK 2
Gantt Chart
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Initiation 1 day 27 April
2018 27 April 2018
Project Initiation
documents
development
5 days 30 April
2018 04 May 2018 1
Evaluating various
resources for project 7 days 07 May
2018 15 May 2018 1,2
Formulation of
objectives and goals 9 days 16 May
2018 28 May 2018 3
4

Deadlines
management 2 days 29 May
2018 30 May 2018 3,4
Gathering team 8 days 31 May
2018 11 June 2018 5
Planning 1 day 31 May
2018 31 May 2018 1,2,3,4,5
Meeting arrangement 10 days 12 June
2018 25 June 2018 6
Project Scope 15 days 01 June
2018 21 June 2018 7
Data collection 20 days 26 June
2018 23 July 2018 8
WBS structuring 5 days 26 June
2018 02 July 2018 7,8
Budget plan 4 days 22 June
2018 27 June 2018 9
Execution 1 day 24 July
2018 24 July 2018 10
Quality management 10 days 03 July
2018 16 July 2018 11
Team training 15 days 28 June
2018 18 July 2018 12
Monitoring and
controlling 1 day 25 July
2018 25 July 2018 13
Integration
management 10 days 25 July
2018 07 August 2018 12,13
Project monitoring 10 days 25 July
2018 07 August 2018 12,13,14
Quality check 5 days 19 July
2018 25 July 2018 15
Closure 1 day 26 July
2018 26 July 2018 16
Project evaluation 10 days 08 August
2018 21 August 2018 17
Modification areas 5 days 08 August
2018 14 August 2018 18
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TASK 3
Risk register
RISKS NATURE OCCURRENCE EVENT MITIGATION STRATEGY
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Resource
Risk
Ineffective
allocation of
various
resources within
project
Lack of proper
allocation produce such
type of risk for the
manager in the project.
High In order to manage the
proper allocation of different
resources, the manager
should provide relevant
work to employees
according to their skills and
knowledge to develop and
improve project’s
effectiveness (Muller,
2017).
Pollution
Risk
Pollution from
equipment and
other resources
Electronic and other
equipment creates air
pollution and harmful
for the Campus
environment.
High The employees should
decide one place for such
activities to secure external
and internal environment of
campus effectively.
Financial
Risk
Poor financial
management
lack of proper cost
estimation may lead to
project fail which is not
good for the project at
all.
Moderate The project manager should
manage cost of various
resources before starting the
project in order to reduce
financial risks.
Technical
Risk
Some technical
issues can delay
project
completion
timings.
Technical equipment
and other resources used
in the project may be
failed due to technical
reasons (Layton and
Ostermiller, 2017).
High Technical issues will affect
the project estimate
completion time that
manager should ensure all
the equipment's are working
properly (Bresnen, 2016).
Supplier
Risk
The technology
is not ready for
deployment.
Due to the cost reasons,
suppliers may affect the
project resources and
Low The manager should plan
some alternatives in order to
reduce risk of supplier.
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raw materials.
Stakehold
er Risk
Stakeholder
expectations are
not accurate.
There is a risk from
stakeholder in the
project if the
requirements are not
met according to them.
Moderate Effective communication
skills are required in order to
manage an effective
discussion with
stakeholders.
Human
Resource
Risk
Lack of proper
training and
development
programs.
Employees require
effective training
towards changes in
order to understand their
roles and
responsibilities.
High Proper training programs
should be organised by
manager to improve human
resource performance.
Performan
ce Risk
Lack of
effective
performance.
Performance is
influenced by
employee’s disturbance
and errors in the project
(Khan and Rasheed,
2015).
Moderate Effective monitoring is
required by manager to
reduce the risk of conflicts
and issues.
Time
manageme
nt
Slow work. Employees sometimes
becomes lazy towards
work which affect the
project’s time
management.
Moderate The manager should provide
a specific time for project
work and divide it to sub-
categories (Rank, Unger
and Gemünden, 2015).
Accidents Use of
dangerous
equipment and
resources.
Equipment such as
cutting machine requires
attention as it may cause
accidents in project.
High The manager and employees
should make attention
towards dangerous
equipment to manage safety
at workplace.
Impact of Risk
8

Type of Risk Risk Degree Risk Impact
Resource Risk 2 4
Absenteeism risk 3 2
Scope risk 4 3
Human resource risk 1 3
Decision making Risk 2 4
Performance Risk 1 2
Financial Risk 2 3
Technical Risk 3 4
Supplier Risk 1 3
Stakeholders Risk 3 3
TASK 4
A) Importance of quality risk management plan for the project
There are a lot of risks in this project that manager should make effective risk
management strategies and plans in order to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats of the project effectively. Planning is an effective approach towards effective project
management. Project based planning is also an effective approach to manage and control
resources used in project in order to achieve desired goals and objectives. Strategies and plans
should be determined by manager in order to reduce the impact of risks on project effectiveness.
The goals and objectives of project is dependent on preparations, planning, determination of
achievements and strategic goals that risk management is necessary for the manager.
Risk management is all about developing a list of external and internal risks involved in
project. Due to a low risk event, there is a small impact of cost in this project (Aragonés-Beltrán,
García-Melón and Montesinos-Valera, 2017). If the risk level increases to moderate then there
are some potential steps should be taken by manager to reduce the impact of risks. The plan is
measured by stakeholders, project sponsors and team members in order to ensure that the project
will run effectively and smoothly. This will help to meet expectation of people which produce
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positive results. The next step is to remove obstacles from project. In respect to this, the risk is
evaluated that employees and manager should take challenges to respond them. The management
is able to reduce or remove negative impact of risks on project by mitigating risk management
strategies and plan efficiently. The main aim is to develop refurbishment of teaching rooms and
computing labs in the London Campus to ensure students and staff all have an excellent learning
environment before summer. The managers are able to use structured approach which will help
to analyse potential impacts of risks on project from which they can implement mitigating
strategies and plans to overcome with them. This will also help to drive employees performance
and lead towards project success. Product-based approach is also a effective method which can
be used by managers at workplace in order to reduce the cost of different used in project which
will help to manage and control financial risks involved in project (Newton, 2016). The
strategies and plans towards effective risk management should be monitored by managers at
workplace in order to reduce chances of project failure. Human resource management is a
necessary part of quality risk management that they are the main role players in producing or
reducing the impact of risks in project. In order to deal with cost of resources risk, performance
and time management risk, stakeholder risk and technical risk, management should formulate
effective strategies which helps to reduce the impact of such operational activities.
B) PRINCE 2
PRINCE 2 is a method based on de facto process for the effective management of project.
The method is used by most of private sector organisation and also the UK government at both
domestic and international level (Pinto, 2014). There are many stages involved in this method
such as Directing a project, starting up project, initiating, managing stage boundaries,
controlling, management of resources, closing a project and planning effectively. The method is
effective and used in all kind of projects. The methods provides guidance and assistance for
employees in order to aware of their individual roles and responsibilities towards project. The
project includes various stages that it is also useful for large projects in order to manage and
control them effectively with positive results (Eskerod and Vaagaasar, 2014).
There are some issues and problems associated with this method. The manager should
have proper knowledge and understanding of this method stages in order to implement them at
right time and place. Leadership skills are also required to enable this method in project
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effectively and efficiently (Liu, 2016). This will help to guide employees towards their work and
task which will also help to increase effectiveness of project.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report analysis that project management is a complex
process and also a difficult task for managers. The report provide information regarding PID in
which all the project planning is included such as budget information, stakeholder analysis,
starting and ending date, project sponsor and manager, objectives, work force and risks etc. This
will help to make a estimation of project including various resources. The total budget is
£100000 for the project. In this budget, various work will be done by manager such as
refurbishment of all classes and computing lab, facilities and upgraded with high tech equipment
etc. The risk management strategies and plans will also help to reduce impact of risks on project
effectiveness. This will also help to drive employees performance and lead towards project
success. PRINCE 2 approach is also a useful tool to manage the project effectively and
efficiently.
APPENDIX
Budget plan
The (QAHE) QA Higher Educations planning for refurbishment of its teaching rooms
and computing labs in the London Campus (London students) to ensure students and staff all
have an excellent learning environment and access to the latest technology to support their
studies and teaching effectively. There are some potential needs of this project such as
refurbishment, furniture, equipment's, resources and other facilities which is planned well
according to the budget. The plan is to complete project in summer vacations before the Campus
open.
The total budget of project is £1000000 in order to achieve the desired goals and
outcomes. The allocation is given below:
TASK COST
Labour cost 100000
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Training 50000
Equipment 200000
Electric technology 200000
Decoration charges 50000
Furniture 150000
IT Equipment 250000
TOTAL £1000000
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100000
50000
200000
200000
50000
150000
250000
Labour cost
Training
Equipment
Electric technology
Decoration charges
Furniture
IT Equipment

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Eskerod, P., Huemann, M. and Savage, G., 2015. Project stakeholder management—past and
present. Project Management Journal 46(6) pp.6-14.
Papke-Shields, K.E. and Boyer-Wright, K.M., 2017. Strategic planning characteristics applied to
project management. International Journal of Project Management 35(2) pp.169-179.
Teller, J., Kock, A. and Gemünden, H.G., 2014. Risk management in project portfolios is more
than managing project risks: A contingency perspective on risk management. Project
Management Journal 45(4) pp.67-80.
Pollack, J. and Adler, D., 2015. Emergent trends and passing fads in project management
research: A scientometric analysis of changes in the field. International Journal of Project
Management 33(1) pp.236-248.
Cagliano, A.C., Grimaldi, S. and Rafele, C., 2015. Choosing project risk management
techniques. A theoretical framework. Journal of Risk Research 18(2) pp.232-248.
Muller, R., 2017. Project governance. Routledge.
Bresnen, M., 2016. Institutional development, divergence and change in the discipline of project
management. International journal of project management 34(2) pp.328-338.
Layton, M.C. and Ostermiller, S.J., 2017. Agile project management for dummies. John Wiley &
Sons.
Khan, A.S. and Rasheed, F., 2015. Human resource management practices and project success, a
moderating role of Islamic Work Ethics in Pakistani project-based
organizations. International Journal of Project Management 33(2) pp.435-445.
Rank, J., Unger, B.N. and Gemünden, H.G., 2015. Preparedness for the future in project
portfolio management: The roles of proactiveness, riskiness and willingness to
cannibalize. International Journal of Project Management 33(8) pp.1730-1743.
Aragonés-Beltrán, P., García-Melón, M. and Montesinos-Valera, J., 2017. How to assess
stakeholders' influence in project management? A proposal based on the Analytic Network
Process. International Journal of Project Management 35(3) pp.451-462.
Newton, R., 2016. Project management step by step: how to plan and manage a highly
successful project. Pearson UK.
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Pinto, J.K., 2014. Project management, governance, and the normalization of
deviance. International Journal of Project Management 32(3) pp.376-387.
Eskerod, P. and Vaagaasar, A.L., 2014. Stakeholder management strategies and practices during
a project course. Project Management Journal 45(5) pp.71-85.
Liu, S., 2016. How the user liaison's understanding of development processes moderates the
effects of user-related and project management risks on IT project
performance. Information & Management 53(1) pp.122-134.
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