Mgt5Ipm International Project Management | Assessment Answers

Google has agreed to fund ATA's East Timor Solar project, but has requested a copy of the Project Risk Management Plan as part of their due diligence before final 'sign-off. Since you are a diligent international project manager assistant, you have already discussed the need for a risk management plan with Kate. In light of Google's request, Kate has asked you to put together a risk management brief for consideration. 

Background

Discussed project planning and explored the impact of cultural diversity on planning. We examined issues relating to scheduling, resource planning and cost estimation that are peculiar to international projects. In Module  we discussed risk management from an international project management perspective. Since international projects are by nature characterised by their high uncertainty, risk management is an important element of international project management. 

Scope of the task

You are expected to use the risk management cycle as a guide and describe how the ATA should proceed with each stage of the cycle in order to come up with a sound project risk management plan for this project. You are expected to use the information provided to you on Kate's (s) and information from a credible source in relation to East Timor's environment. For example, who would you include in risk workshop during the risk identification stage to find out more about importing licencing requirements?

After ascertaining the requirements, and assuming there may be potential delays, how would you analyse and prioritise the risk?

You are allowed to make some assumptions, provided you can justify how and why you make those assumptions. Using the fictitious import licencing example again, you may wish to mandate that any risks that cause a delay in the activity completion date greater than five working days is identified as critical, and structure the risk matrix accordingly. The reason could be you have assumed the Australian installation expert could only be in East Timor for a fixed period of time, therefore there is no 'float' for the installation activity on the schedule.

There is room for some assumptions since you don't have all the facts at hand but they need to be sensible, logical and based on certain facts.

Answer:

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.