Momentum Trains: WA Rail Fleet Project Risk Mitigation Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of risk mitigation strategies for the Western Australia (WA) regional rail fleet project, focusing on the design of new coaches by Momentum Trains. The report identifies various risk scenarios, including financial, technical, operational, economic, and manpower-related risks. It details stakeholder roles, the project manager, the project team, and the senior technician. The risk management plan includes processes, tools (Trello and Toggl), and activities such as identifying, assessing, and evaluating risks. The report offers strategies for mitigating each risk type, such as financial risks (budget planning), technical risks (technical design meetings), operational risks (project manager oversight), economic risks (financial planning), and manpower risks (worker assessment). The document also includes a risk register and recommendations for managing risks, emphasizing proactive planning and stakeholder communication to ensure the successful implementation of the project, which aims to enhance transport accessibility, comfort, reliability, and safety within the region.

Running head: RECOMMENDATION FOR WA AND RISK MITIGATION METHODS
Recommendation for WA and Risk Mitigation Methods
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1RECOMMENDATION FOR WA AND RISK MITIGATION METHODS
Executive Summary
The report discusses about the imminent risks that would approach towards the project during the
design of the new fleet of coaches. The report would discuss about the identification of the
scenarios of risks that could approach towards the project. The different risks that would
approach towards the project and would be identified in the report. The risks identified in the
report would be analysed and thus a proper kind of evaluation of risks would be identified. Based
on the risk scenarios, various strategies would be developed and thus a proper process of
deployment of such strategies have been defined. These strategies would be helpful for reducing
the likelihood and the impacts made by such kind of risks. The management of the discussed
organisation would have to decide on the best factors for mitigating the risk scenarios. Hence,
the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholders based on the management of risks have been
properly estimated. The report also includes a risk register that contain each of the risks
identified within the project. This would be useful for the identification of likelihood and
seriousness of each of the identified risks. Based on the understanding over the discussed
scenarios, the ways of the mitigation of each the risks would be understood.

2RECOMMENDATION FOR WA AND RISK MITIGATION METHODS
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and Content.............................................................................................................3
2. Stakeholders and Risk Management............................................................................................3
3. Risk Management Plan................................................................................................................4
3.1 Process...................................................................................................................................4
3.2 Tools......................................................................................................................................5
3.3 Activities................................................................................................................................5
3.3.1 Identifying Risks.............................................................................................................5
3.3.2 Determining Risks/Assessment of risks.........................................................................6
3.3.3 Evaluating Risks.............................................................................................................7
3.3.4 Planning of Risks/Management of risk...........................................................................8
3.3.5 Communicating Risks and Stakeholder Matrix..............................................................9
4. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
5. Appendix....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction and Content
The Government of Western Australia (WA) is designing a new plan for the replacement
of the NSW regional rail fleet that were named as XPT, XPLORER and Endeavour trains. The
old trains were mostly 36 years old and thus they were in high need for changing the systems.
The main aim with the design implementation of the new trains is based on the creation of
sustainable opportunities for job and also introducing new skills (Regional Rail Transport for
WA, 2019). The newly implemented trains would also improve the accessibility, comfort,
reliability and safety for the customers in the region who mostly travel from Brisbane, Canberra
and Melbourne.
The task based on the design of the new trains has been provided to Momentum Trains,
which is a renowned organisation in the manufacturing department. The project based on the
design of new trains is based within WA to support the transportation system at NSW along with
Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. Based on the design of the new project, it can be considered
that it would help in providing employment to the people within WA and also open new
sustainable job skills and opportunities. These risks could be based on financial risks, technical
risks, operational risks, economic risks and manpower based risks. These risks would be highly
needed to be eliminated from the system in order to help in mitigating the risks scenarios and
thus helping in the improvement of the situation. The management over the risks scenarios
should be highly taken into consideration.
2. Stakeholders and Risk Management
The stakeholders involved within the project based on designing of the new fleet of trains
within WA can be described as:

4RECOMMENDATION FOR WA AND RISK MITIGATION METHODS
1. Steering Committee – The steering committee at Momentum Trains assigned by the
WA Government would be responsible for performing weekly updates over the project design.
2. Project Manager – The project manager would be responsible for performing
identifying the situations of risks (Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo, 2016). The project manager
would also conduct meetings with the other technicians and co-workers in order to properly
design the technical plan of the new fleet of trains.
3. Project Team - The project team would consist of technicians and other co-workers
who would perform work over the project. They would perform the design of the project by
understanding the requirements of the documentation and thus define the best possible actions.
4. Senior Technician – The senior technician involved within the design of trains would
be responsible for designing the technical plan of the project. They would consult with other
technicians and co-workers who would provide the best input for the design process. The senior
technician would handle the matter at the earliest possible time. They would arrange meetings
with the other co-workers and would thus design risk management plan based on the situation.
3. Risk Management Plan
3.1 Process
Based over the discussed scenarios of risks within the design of new fleet of trains, it
could be discussed that the higher management level within Momentum Trains would be solely
responsible for assessing the risk scenarios (Moran, 2014). The senior technicians and project
manager would analyse the risks, discuss them with the technicians and also define strategies
that would help them in mitigating the risk scenarios.

5RECOMMENDATION FOR WA AND RISK MITIGATION METHODS
3.2 Tools
During the process of mitigation of risks, the project manager and the high officials
would need the use of several tools that would be helpful for mitigating them. In order to
mitigate the risks, some of the tools that could be used for mitigating them are – Trello and
Toggl.
Trello is considered as a Kanban tool, which is mostly used by teams who are using the
agile based project management approach (Project Management Body of Knowledge, 2017).
With the help of this tool, the project managers at Momentum Trains would be able to comment,
define tables and also design the various project scenarios.
The Toggl tool would also be helpful for creating the list of tasks needed for the project.
In case of any risks that would approach towards the project, the higher authorities would be able
to comment on the particular project status and thus note the risk scenarios and update on them.
3.3 Activities
3.3.1 Identifying Risks
The identification over the different scenarios would be helpful for identifying the
various risks and thus decide on some kind of strategies for mitigating them. In the case study,
the different identified risks are financial risks, technical risks, operational risks, economic risks
and manpower based risks. Some of the examples of risks based on the discussed scenario are –
escalated costs of resources during project design, planning of technical design for the new fleet
of coaches, occurrence of financial crisis and insufficient amount of manpower within the project
(Curtis, 2016). These risks could approach towards the design of the new fleet of coaches
designed for the trains of WA Government.

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3.3.2 Determining Risks/Assessment of risks
The different risks identified within the project based on the design of the new fleet of
trains are: financial risks, technical risks, operational risks, economic risks and manpower based
risks.
Type of Risks Assessment of risks
Financial
Risks
The financial risks could be in relation with escalating costs of the resources that
would be required within the project. These would lead to financial stability over
the situation as the pre-planned budget would become unstable and thus lead to
risks for the project.
Technical
Risks
There could be some situations in which the designers and technicians would not
be satisfied with the pre-planned design and they might face problems during the
practical design of the project (Guo, Chang-Richards, Wilkinson & Li, 2014).
This would result in severe problems for the design of the project.
Operational
Risks
There could be dangerous impacts based on the risks within the operational
functions. The costs during the design of the project might get escalated as the
situations might get changed (Project Management Body of Knowledge, 2017).
The rates of each of the resources required might get changed.
Economic
Risks
Financial crisis can be considered as the most critical problem for the project.
During the conduction of the project, the financial strategy of the project might
get unstable (Vernon, 2017). This would result in challenges in finishing the
project within the mentioned deadline.
Manpower
based Risks
The manpower required for the project might not be enough based on the scale of
the project. Insufficient workers within the team would lead to delay in the
delivery of the project (Delmon, 2017). Various incompetent workers might also
lead to improper delivery of the project.

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3.3.3 Evaluating Risks
The discussed risk scenarios should be evaluated in order to understand the necessary
mitigation actions that need to be taken. The evaluation over the risk scenarios could be
discussed as:
Type of Risks Assessment of risks
Financial
Risks
One possible mitigation action that could be approached towards solving the risk
scenario is that the project manager should decide on some strategies in
collaboration with the project sponsor (Qazi, Quigley & Dickson, 2014). They
should also deal with imminent costs and thus plan the budget accordingly.
Technical
Risks
Based on the technical risks over the project, the project manager would be
responsible for conducting a meeting with the technicians and other co-workers
within the project (Qazi, Quigley, Dickson & Kirytopoulos, 2016). The project
manager would also conduct a high-level technical design in collaboration with
workers and thus decide on best measures.
Operational
Risks
Based on the discussed operational risks, the most possible mitigating action that
could be taken is to consult the project manager to manage each of the aspects of
the project (Locatelli, Mancini & Romano, 2014). The project manager should
conduct a brief review over each of the required items that would be needed for
the project.
Economic
Risks
The mitigating action that could be taken for the project is that the project
manager should conduct a meeting with the project sponsor and the management
team at Momentum Trains (Smith, Merna & Jobling, 2014). They should plan out
for some kind of strategies that could be implemented for the project. Proper
amount of funds should be sanctioned from the project sponsor and the Western
Australian Government.
Manpower
based Risks
In order to mitigate such kind of actions, the management team should conduct an
assessment over each of the workers and thus ensure whether they would be
capable of performing work over the project.

9RECOMMENDATION FOR WA AND RISK MITIGATION METHODS
3.3.4 Planning of Risks/Management of risk
The risks that would approach towards the project could be mitigated by making a proper
mitigation action plan. The recommended actions against the risk scenarios are:
Type of Risks Assessment of risks
Financial
Risks
The financial risks that are incurred over the project would be mitigated by
concerning with the project manager and the project sponsor. The project sponsor
would calculate each of the necessary costs of the resources (Hopkin, 2018).
They would also conduct a cost benefit analysis over each of the scenarios of
risks.
Technical
Risks
The technical design of the project should be properly be designed by considering
the ideas of the senior technicians and other co-workers who would be working
within the report (Sadgrove, K. (2016). They should design the project properly
and thus provide the final documentation of the report to the steering committee
of the Momentum Trains. The technical design of the project would be mostly be
approved by the steering committee at Momentum Trains.
Operational
Risks
Each of the risks within the operations would be handled by the project manager
and the project sponsor. They would handle each of the risk scenarios (Vanclay,
Esteves, Aucamp & Franks, 2015). They would look into each of the details of
the operation related risks.
Economic
Risks
The economic stability of the project should be estimated prior to the start of the
project. The project sponsor should also conduct a thorough review over the
economic scenario over the project (Tirpak, Brown & Ronquillo-Ballesteros,
2014). Each of the resources should be taken into consideration and thus the
economic stability of the project should be taken into consideration.
Manpower
based Risks
The manpower required by the project would be highly be beneficial and thus is
considered as one of the most important resource of the project (Vanclay, 2017).
Conduction of weekly progress reports over the concerned project would also
help in mitigation over the various scenarios of risks based on manpower.

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3.3.5 Communicating Risks and Stakeholder Matrix
Stakeholders Impact Influence What is important for
stakeholders?
Strategy for Stakeholder Engagement
Project
Manager
High High Maintaining the detailed project
plan and managing the project
aspects
Weekly discussions with each of the management level
employees and other technicians involved within the
project.
Steering
Committee
High High Maintain the entire business
operations made during the project
and also ensure proper functioning
of project plan
Weekly update from the project manager about the
project work scenario.
Project
Sponsor
High Medium Maintain the financial plan and
budget of the project
Daily report from the project manager about any form
of new allocation of resources required within the
project.
Technical
officers
Low High Technical design of the project and
Quality test plan
Daily update to the project manager about the technical
progress of the project. They would also communicate
with the technicians and other co-workers involved
within the project.

11RECOMMENDATION FOR WA AND RISK MITIGATION METHODS
During conduction over the review of the project, each of the risk scenarios should be
properly treated. As per the requirements of the project, the risk should be reviewed properly.
The review over the Risks and Issues registers would be undertaken over a weekly basis
(Project Management Body of Knowledge, 2017). The project manager and the steering
committee at Momentum Trains would be responsible for conducting a brief understanding of
the risks and the mitigating strategies.
During the review over the risks and issues register, the management team, steering
committee, project sponsor, project manager and the other Technical officers within Momentum
Trains would be responsible for conducting the review.
The risks scenarios should be monitored over a monthly basis. This would mostly depend
over the identified risks based on the progress of the project. The likelihood and the impact of the
risks would highly be recognised.
The Risk Register would be maintained within the Risk Management Plan and would be
thus included within them. They should contain surveys that would be conducted with the
management team at Momentum Trains. This would help them in identifying about the needed
areas of improvement within the design of the coaches.
The Steering Committee and the management team at the organisation would be provided
with an updated risk register on a monthly basis. The Project Status reports would be provided to
the management team at Momentum Trains in order to provide them with the updates based on
the design of the new coach of trains.