Project Risk Management Plan for Solar Lightning in East Timor

This essay provides a risk management plan for the solar project undertaken by Alternative Technology Association in East Timor. It includes stakeholder engagement, risk identification, and conclusion.

Running head: PROJECT RISK MANAGEMNT PLAN
Project Risk Management Plan
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the Project...............................................................................................................3
Engagement of Stakeholders and Management...........................................................................4
Risk Identification.......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Risk management is the amalgamation of methodical and combining mechanism that
leads to the leads to the successful implementation and accomplishment of projects .The process
associated with risk management also includes solution to the possible risks that might be
encountered in a project. The essay gives a brief about the solar projects undertaken by
Alternative Technology Association in the country, East Timor located in Southeast Asia. The
essay describes how ATA should proceed with the risk management cycle in order to provide an
organized risk management plan for the project .The essay details about the working The essay
of analyze the situation of potential delays in the project and comprehends the tasks that re to be
prioritized during this situation .
Discussion
Overview of the Project
Almost estimated 20 percent of houses in the villages of East Timor, a country in
Southeast Asia, were not provided with electricity connection. Alternative Technology
Association has undertaken a project of providing low cost solar lightning in the homes in the
villages of East Timor who have no access to electricity. Google has funded ATA, which is a
nonprofit management organization in Melbourne, Australia, for this project .Since 2003 ATA
has installed many solar powers lightning in many homes, hospitals, schools and community
centers.

Engagement of Stakeholders and Management
In the risk management plan, the engagement of stakeholders is an important issue. The
Solar project of East involves many stakeholders. It is important to give responsibility to a
change manager from the commencement of the project ,it would lead to cooperation from the
residents of the area .The major stake holders for the project are the government and Google Inc.,
Alternative Technology Association and the residents of East Timor .The other stake holder
include local authorities.
Kate Greenwood the project manger of ATA followed a different philosophy in
managing the stakeholders and kept them engaged. There was a delay in project after the pilot
phase but the project manager was honest to justify the delay tom the stakeholders and in that
duration of delay, they utilized it and developed a robust and organized management plan. The
plan encompassed and detailed what they wanted to achieve ,their objectives ,expected outcomes
,indicators to measure the outcomes .It also included the details about who are to be involved .
They also conducted an interview in the household of East Timor interacting with them. They
collected the data to analyze how the situation was at the beginning and how it was after the
project. This would provide the evidence about the project and the outcome. The relationship
with the stakeholders was very good for ATA, which enabled them to overcome problems such
as shipping. One of the issues that was faced was that the government schemes of East Timor is
different from the government schemes of Australia and the government schemes were not
technologically advanced. ATA tried to work closely with government. They made aware to the
government of east Timor about the working of ATA regarding how they train their
technicians ,ensure that systems are sustained in the future .Thus it is evident that they tried to
maintain close association with the local government .

Risk Identification
The solar project in East Timor faced many risks which is required to be confronted
before its implementation .It is very important to assess the risk associated with the solar project
in East Timor, located in South East Asia .To assess the risk it is mandatory to understand each
stage of risk management cycle . The first stage in risk management cycle is identification of risk
and also to evaluate the potential threat associated with the project .The potential risk factor
includes cultural and language barrier of East Timor. Another associated risk is the licensing and
duration of time for which the Australian solar lightning installation expert can stay in East
Timor. The risk matrix, which is a matrix, to assess the level of risk. It is a simple mechanism,
which is used to assess the risk of a project .The risk matrix for the project on East Timor are
 High Impact –It includes lack of cooperation from the government and
community members’ .and shortage of equipment required for installation.
 Medium Impact – It includes language barriers ,lack of transparency from the part
of contractor and issues of licensing
 Low Impact – It includes cultural barriers and inconvenience of the experts
engaged in installation process.
According to the international project manager of ATA, it is easier tom work with the
local people and using their knowledge to overcome and curtail the barriers associated with the
project. Several issues come up when working with the outside organizations .the local
committees used their experience to manage money and water, which proved to be helpful.
Although, language barrier proved to be a hurdle in working with the local committees, which
was combated using an interpreter. However, the equipments of solar lightning were outsourced
from China and Australia .All the system were assembled in East Timor and installed. The other

risk that was associated with the project was occupational safety hazard and regulation .which
was completely different in East Timor from in Australia. However, ATA gave their best effort
to avoid any safety hazards associated with the solar project.
Conclusion
From this risk management plan that involved the project of solar lightning in East Timor
undertaken by Alternative Technology Association in Melbourne, it can be concluded that that
ATA developed a robust and well organized management plan for the project. The management
plans were well planned and had all the ingredients to curtail the various risk factors associated
with the project. The plan by ATA made survey that they manage the stakeholders properly and
engage them efficiently .they also made use of the experience and knowledge of the local
authorities and government for the accomplishment of their projects .It also minimized several
barriers associated with the project.