Case Study: Project Management of Regional Rail Fleet (NSW) Analysis

This case study examines the Regional Rail Fleet Project in Western Australia, focusing on the government's initiative to replace existing rail fleets with modern trains to stimulate the economy and enhance passenger experience. The analysis includes a review of project background, literature on risk management frameworks, and identification of potential risks such as design, financial, and management risks. The paper explores the project's feasibility, considering operational, financial, and technical aspects. It also outlines positive and negative risk conditions. The study concludes that effective risk management is crucial for the project's success, emphasizing the need for a functional design, comfortable amenities, and proper strategies to mitigate potential issues. The assignment provides an overview of the project's deliverables, feasibility, and risk assessment, highlighting the importance of efficient project management in achieving the government's goals of improving transportation services and stimulating economic growth.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Case Study: Project - Regional Rail Fleet (NSW)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Part 1: Deliverables..........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Project background...........................................................................................................2
1.2 Literature review...............................................................................................................3
1.2.1 Identification of the project management risk framework.............................................3
1.2.2 Reviewing the industry report and identification of risk................................................4
1.3 Western Australian demand for the project......................................................................5
1.4 Feasibility of the project...................................................................................................6
1.5 Positive and negative risk conditions................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................10

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Part 1: Deliverables
Introduction
The regional rail fleet development in the Western Australia is considered as one of the
important project that is mainly undertaken by the government in order to deliver safe,
comfortable as well as reliable services to the travelers. The main focus of the government is to
stimulate the economy of the Western Australia by creating a sustainable job opportunity as well
as skills. The assignment generally aims to examine the various types of information that is
mainly associated with the rail fleet project by assuming the role of risk consultant or risk
manager in the development of rail system that is generally implemented in Western Australia.
1.1 Project background
The paper mainly focuses on the regional rail fleet development by the government of
Western Australia. It is identified that the government generally took the decision of replacing
the Western Australia rail fleet trains that generally include XPT, endeavor trains as well as
EXPLORER. In addition to this, the Western Australian government also decided to properly
implement the fleet by making the needed improvements within the rail by focusing on the
safety, reliability as well as comfort of the customers who mainly travel from Sydney to other
regions of Australia. Furthermore, the government also wanted to develop proper designs
including the spacious buffet, accessible toilets, overhead luggage status as well as the facility of
charging points for the travelers. The government provided the contract of this project so that the
project of train development will generally starts its work with the help of proper detailed design
so that the new trains will generally get started from the year 2013 with proper service.

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1.2 Literature review
1.2.1 Identification of the project management risk framework
It is stated by Badewi (2016) that risk management is a structured approach that is mainly
used for identifying the various types of potential threat that an organization generally faces
while defining the strategy quite properly for eliminating the impact of risk as well as due to the
appropriate mechanism of successfully evaluating as well as monitoring the strategy. It is
identified that there are mainly six different types of components that assists in developing
proper framework for the procedure of risk management (Cagliano, Grimaldi & Rafele, 2015). It
is identified the components that are associated with the framework of risk management
generally includes risk measurement, risk identification, risk reporting, risk monitoring as well as
governance of risk.
According to Carvalho and Rabechini Junior (2015), in the initial step, it is quite
necessary to identify the risks that are mainly associated with the project. While undertaking a
project, a project manager can face different types of project risks including legal risk, IT risk,
strategic risk, operational risk as well as other types of political risk. For successfully listing the
project risks, it is quite important for the entire project to properly select the risks that are mainly
exposed for categorizing the risks into non-core as well as core project risks. It is opined Kountur
(2018) that proper measurement of project risk assists in providing appropriate information
related to quantum of a specific risk exposure or an aggregate risk exposure and the different
probabilities of loss which generally occurs due to exposure. It is found that in order to measure
various types of risk exposure, it is quite necessary to properly consider the entire risk profile
which is mainly related with the organization.

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It is stated by Maseko, Root and Senthilkumar (2018) that proper risk mitigation plan
generally helps in eliminating the risks by reducing the different types of core risks which occur
during the progress of the project. Mitigation of project risk is considered to be quite important
as it helps in reporting on various types of specific project risk by properly aggregating the
various types of project measures in order to make sure that the risk level generally have exist at
proper optimum level (McNeil, Frey & Embrechts, 2015). It is quite important to provide risk
report containing details of the project to the risk personnel which generally have the entire
authority of properly adjusting different types of risk exposures.
According to Sarkar and Panchal (2015), risk governance is mainly defined as one of the
process that helps in making sure that the employees of an organization are able to perform their
duties as well as various types of risk management related framework. In addition to this, Risk
governance assists in properly elaborating the roles of different employees by properly
categorizing their duties and by assigning proper roles and responsibilities to different
individuals on board in order to get their approval on different types of core risks that further
limits the general oversight.
1.2.2 Reviewing the industry report and identification of risk
After properly reviewing the various industry reports, it is found that there are number of
challenges that can occur during the development of rail fleet in Western Australia. The risks
which are generally determined includes design risk, financial risk, management risk, site risk,
material risk as well as various types of legal risk. It is stated by Shad and Lai (2015) that the
various types of risks which are mainly associated with the acquisition of the land can generally
be resolved during the initial stage of the project after the needed land is successfully handled
with the help of the government (Siau, Chiang and Hardgrave, 2015). However, material risk

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mainly occurs due to the utilization of poor quality of materials in the development of rail fleet
that further helps in creating number of quality related issues and challenges.
Furthermore, the materials which are mainly needed for the project is not available at the
right time then it would also cause delay within the project progress. Additionally, it is found that
inappropriate project design can also raise number of issues that further can cause delay within
the project and can increase the budget of the project (Welch, Ismail & Masarip, 2018). It is very
much necessary to recruit experienced designers as well as surveyors for analyzing the design of
the project quite effectively.
According to Wiengarten et al. (2016), after successful risk identification which are
mainly related with the project of regional rail fleet, it is very much necessary to look at different
types of techniques which further assists in analyzing the cash flows which is mainly considered
as one of the significant function for the entire procedure of risk management. Furthermore,
safety related issues occur during the development of the rail project and in order to avoid such
types of challenges, it is quite important to take precautions by utilizing gloves, googles as well
as safety belts.
1.3 Western Australian demand for the project
The regional fleet project is generally required by the Australian government in order to
stimulate the economy in order to create proper opportunities as well as skills. It is identified that
with the development of the new trains, the Western Australian government generally wants to
give proper facilities to the travellers so that they can be able to travel comfortably. Therefore,
the government wants to develop proper functional design including the facilities like spacious
buffet, toilet accessibility, reversible seating, electronic charging points and more. Additionally,
the government also wants to provide proper facility of automatic selective facility of door

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opening for the different stations as well as the facility of CCTV equipment. Furthermore, the
government of Western Australia wants to provide device sharing points, suitable laptops as well
as tray tablets as well as spacious seat pockets.
1.4 Feasibility of the project
Project feasibility is defined as the process of testing the viability of a project or a new
business. The main purpose of the feasibility study is to appropriately emphasize different types
of potential barriers that generally can occur if one will pursue project and can be able to
determine different projects. The different types of feasibility analysis which will be mainly
undertaken for the development of the regional fleet in Western Australia is mainly elaborated
below:
Operational feasibility: It is analyzed that the fleet train will operate properly due to the
development of new features as well as facilities which are generally incorporated within the
project.
Financial feasibility: The project that is undertaken is considered to be economically
feasible as the entire work of the project generally get completed within the budget which is
sponsored by the project manager.
Technical feasibility: The project which is mainly conducted is considered to be technically
feasible as all the technical requirements that are needed are easily available.
1.5 Positive and negative risk conditions
The negative as well as positive risk conditions that are mainly associated with the project of
Western Australian government is generally provided in the table below:
Risk Id Risk Description Positive/negative

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1 Design issue If the design of the
project is not
developed properly
then it would be
difficult to develop
the rail fleet.
Negative risk
2 Schedule slippage If the schedule of the
project is not tracked
properly then it can
cause number of
problems including
schedule slippage.
Negative risk
3 Improper materials If the materials of
the project are not of
proper quality then it
can cause number of
quality related
challenges.
Negative risk
4 Inexperienced team
members
If the team members
are not experienced
then it can cause
number of challenges
Negative risk

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in developing the rail
fleet project.
5 Management risk If the management of
the organization are
unable to manage the
project risk then it
would be difficult to
complete the work of
the project.
Positive risk
Safety issues If the workers of the
project does not
follow proper safety
precautions then
different types of
risks as well as
challenges related
with project safety
can occur within the
project.
Negative risk
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the entire project that the rail fleet project development in the
region of Western Australia is considered to be beneficial as with the help of the project, the
government will be able to provide much more comfortable as well as functional design

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including the facility of reversible seating, overhead luggage storage as well as single deck
carriages. Furthermore, the risk management framework that is reviewed for the project reflects
that the risks that occurs within the project will be managed with the help of different risk
strategies. In addition to this, the paper also explains the risks that are mainly associated with the
project.

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Bibliography
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