VU EPM5740 Project Risk Management: Queensland Health Risk Report

This report focuses on developing a robust risk management plan for Queensland Health, Australia, in response to the payroll crash caused by the malfunctioning SAP system. The report begins with an executive summary and introduction outlining the need for effective risk management in the healthcare sector. It aims to assess both internal and external environmental factors using SWOT and PESTEL analyses, respectively, and to formulate a comprehensive risk management action plan. The methodology involves a qualitative analysis of secondary data from various sources. The SWOT analysis reveals Queensland Health's strengths, such as government ownership and a large customer base, as well as weaknesses like a lack of decision-making autonomy and employee training deficiencies. Opportunities include staff training and promoting change management, while threats encompass corruption, bureaucracy, and market risks. The PESTEL analysis examines political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors influencing Queensland Health. The report assesses risks, identifies potential issues, and offers recommendations, including risk management training for employees and empowering them to make risk-related decisions. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of cautious tender practices, thorough assessment of project contracting companies, and efforts to reduce corruption to enhance the decision-making process. The report underscores the significance of stakeholder participation in forming risk management strategies to ensure more prudent outcomes.

Risk
Management
at the
Queensland
Health

Executive Summary
 The report shows that Queensland Health should form a stringent risk management
strategy.
 Australia being a booming economy provides favourable environmental conditions like
presence of multinational technology companies and strong financial network to support
risk management strategies formation as well as implementation.
 However, the bodies like the Queensland Health must conduct market researches to
identify the risks, which they may face while operating in the Australian market.
 The report also shows that mere formation of strong risk management strategies would not
help in minimising risks.
 The body should train its employees to implement risks efficiently.
 The Government of Queensland should also provide the Queensland Health more power to
take decisions.

Introduction
 Effective risk management plan is necessary to ensure that organisations are able
to mitigate or at least reduce the risks, which they face while operating in the
market.
 The aim of the report would be forming a risk management plan for the
Queensland Health, Australia.
 The substratum for the discussion would be provided by the payroll crash, which
Queensland Health suffered owing malfunctioning of the SAP (Sharma, K. 2013).
 The project management company, which was responsible for the risk, was IBM
Australia.
 The task would consist of formation of action plan for the Queensland Health,
which would enable the body to mitigate or at least reduce such risks in the future.

Aims/objectives
 The report would aim to achieve two objectives.
 The first objective would be assessing the internal environmental
factors of the Queensland Health and external environmental factors
using SWOT and PESTEL respectively.
 The second objective of the report would be formation of risk
management action plan for the body.

Risk management methodology
 The researcher would adopt qualitative analysis of secondary data to
conduct the research.
 The secondary data would be acquired from articles, books, journals
and internet sources.

Establishing the context-internal and
external-SWOT of Queensland Health
 Strengths.
 Owned by the Government of Queensland: The Queensland Health is
owned by the Government of Queensland. The government body is able to
attract financial assistance, goodwill and manpower owing to the support
it receives from the Government of Queensland (Health.qld.gov.au. 2019).
 High level project management and system advancements: The
Queensland Health is able to accede high-level projects to bring about
advancements in its system. For example, the body was able to undergo
high level of technological advancements involving IBM Australia.
 Immense customer base: The Queensland Health provides healthcare
services to immense customer base at reduced rates.

Establishing the context-internal and
external-SWOT of Queensland Health
 Weaknesses:
 Lacks autonomy of decision-making: The Queensland Health operates
directly under the supervision of Queensland Government and thus lacks
autonomy to take decisions. This was evident from the inaccurate calculations,
which the Queensland Health carried out and submitted pertaining to the
payroll software up gradation while inviting tenders.
 Lack of expertise: The body lacks expertise in management of big projects.
 Employees lacked technological training: The employees of the
Queensland health lack technological training. That is why they were not able
to assess the risks, which the payroll system crash would pose to them.

Establishing the context-internal and
external-SWOT of Queensland Health
 Opportunities:
 Staff training: The Queensland should provide training to the staff on
management of advanced payroll systems.
 Internal promotion of change management: The Queensland
Health should promote change management as a part of its core
organisational policies. .

Establishing the context-internal and
external-SWOT of Queensland Health
 Threats:
 Corruption and bureaucracy: The Queensland Health functions under the
control of the Government of Queensland. This means that body comes
directly under the influences of corruption and bureaucracy. This inhibit the
power of the management of the Queensland Health to take decisions, which
are more aligned to the market.
 Market risks: The continuous government interruption, corruption and
bureaucracy inhibit the management of the Queensland Health from taking
prudent decisions regarding market risks (Abc.net.au. 2018). For, the high
rate of corruption and the resultant lack of communication among the
personnel resulted in presentation of inappropriate estimates with the project
management department, which ultimately led to the crash of the project.

Establishing the context-internal and
external-PESTEL of Australia
Political Government stability and
formation of policies Opportunity The Government of Australia is stable. The government functions at the union level
and state levels. The union government forms policies and laws. The state
governments like the Government of Queensland execute the laws and policies at
the respective state levels. For example, the Government of Queensland formed
policies to upgrade the payroll set up of the departments under its supervision from
LATTICE to SAP
Political International relationships Opportunity The Government of Australia has strong bilaeral relationship with most of the
countries in the world. This enables the state governments like Government of
Queensland get access to foreign resources. Foreign companies are able to enter
the Australian market. For example, IBM is based in the US and operates in Australia
thriough its Australian subsidiary, IBM Australia Limited.
Political Corruption and bureaucracy Threat The government of Australia suffers from corruption and bureacracy both the
central level and state levels. This inhibits dynamic decision making as the
authority to take decisions is limited to the high level employees.

Establishing the context-internal and
external-PESTEL of Australia
Economic High rate of GDP Opportunity
The GDP rate of Australia is very high (Tradingeconomics.com. 2019)(Appendix 5)
Economic The value of AUD in the
foreign currency market Threat
The position of the AUD is weakening against the major international
(Bloomberg.com. 2019)(Appendix 6). This means that the revenue which companeis
like IBM (based in the US) would receive from their Australian operations would fall in
values when converted into their home currencies (USD). This means that the
foriegn companeis would charge higher price to work within Australia.
Economic Financial strength Opportunity
Australian market owing to its booming economic conditions is financially strong. The
country is able to provide sufficient financial resources to government bodies (like
Queensland Health) and project management companies (like IBM Australia) to
undertake large scale projects

Establishing the context-internal and
external-PESTEL of Australia
Social
Falling per capita
income in
Australia
Threat
The country is heading towards a recession
which means that the residents would earn
less. This means that the residents of the
country would have less disposable income to
afford expensive health treatment (Letts
2019). This means that the government bodies
like the Queensland Health would generate
lower amount of revenue.
Social
Changing in
product
preferences of
consumers
Both The government bodies and companies have
to invest immense capital towards
development of new products