Project Plan Part 2. Course Learning Outcomes for Unit III

Instructions Attached: Also included part 1 of Project Plan, Study Guide, and Rubric

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit III
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
5. Prepare a final project report.
5.1 Establish a work breakdown structure (WBS) and responsibility assignment matrix (RAM).
6. Determine project requirements using requirement collection tools and techniques.
6.1 Organize project requirements into the task description documentation.
Course/Unit Learning Outcomes Learning Activity
5.1 Unit Lesson
Chapter 5, pp. 165–187
Chapter 7, pp. 241–261 Unit III Course Project
6.1 Unit Lesson
Unit III Course Project
Required Unit Resources
Chapter 5: Scope Management, pp. 164–187
Chapter 7: Risk Management, pp. 241–261
Unit Lesson
In this unit, we continue our discussion of the information contained in the project overview, and we will also discuss risk.
Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS)
A WBS is an important part of project planning and involves breaking down the work component of the scope into project deliverables to meet the project objectives. As Pinto (2019) notes, the WBS includes the building blocks of the project. Larger blocks of work are called work packages. For example, all of the information technology (IT) work might be in an IT work package. From there, each work package must be broken down into tasks that can be accomplished in an assigned timeframe. For example, if you are working on an IT project as a software developer, how long will it take you to write the code for a product warranty form? How long will it take you to test for quality assurance?
As another example, imagine that you work for an organization called ABC Company, and the company has 200 employees. The personal computers (PCs) for these employees are four to five years old and need to be replaced. The software is also very old and needs to be updated. What tasks will you need to do to get this accomplished? Perhaps the following tasks will work for this PC and Software Installation Project.
1. Talk to the users to find out what equipment and software versions they have now.
2. Get some cost information.
3. Create a proposal for management.
4. Replace the PCs, and upload the new software.
 Actually, these are just the starting or overarching tasks for the project. These tasks need to be broken down and further refined. So, the next step would be to break down the tasks into steps that are meaningful and actionable. A basic example of how to break down tasks is in your textbook on pages 165–167.
The following might be a good example of a WBS for our PC and Software Installation Project after breaking down our tasks into actionable steps.
WBS example
Another good example of what a WBS might look like is on page 169 in your textbook.
The next component of our project plan is the organization breakdown structure (OBS), which involves assigning work packages to an owner. For example, an IT work package might be assigned to the manager of software development. That manager can help assign tasks to IT employees. Perhaps an IT analyst will gather requirements from the users. A software developer will write the software code. A quality assurance specialist will test the software code.
The following might be a good OBS for our PC and Software Installation Project as described above. 
 
OBS example
Once you have your OBS graphed, you can then use this information to assign departments to the work packages and calculate the costs. In this example, we have the following work packages: User Needs Analysis, Create Acquisitions Document, Develop Proposal, and Installation Support Staff. In this project, it appears that the IT department and purchasing department will be involved primarily as owners of the work packages, right?
Another good example of the development of an OBS is on pages 171–173 in your textbook.
The responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) will provide a visual depicting every task and who is responsible for completing that task. Please see the example of a RAM for our PC and Software Installation Project below.  
Another good example of a RAM is on page 174 in your textbook.
Project Risk
Project risk is mostly what it sounds like. It is the possibility or probability that something is going to go wrong and leave your project late or over budget or even failing. Risk management means that you recognize those risks and can identify them and plan to mitigate those issues. For example, you might ask yourself what the risks are for not completing your assignment for this unit. You might say that its tax season, so there is a risk that you might have to work late and not have the time or energy to work on your assignment. What can you do to mitigate that risk? Well, perhaps you could read your chapter materials at lunchtime, right? You could also decide to devote 30 minutes each night to preparing to write the assignment and then carve out four quiet, distraction-free hours over the weekend to actually write the assignment.
 It is a little more complicated in projects. In projects, the project manager (PM) has to consider the potential impact of the risk if it happens and the probability that it will occur. Thus, as Pinto (2019) discusses, the four stages of risk management involve risk identification, analysis, mitigation strategies, and control and documentation.
Types of Risk
1. Financial risk: What happens if you spend a million dollars on a project that fails? Your organization just incurred a million-dollar loss. What if the cost of the project overruns one week, one month, or one year?
2. Technical risk: What happens if we do not gather all of the correct user specification for an IT project?
3. Commercial risk: This type of risk involves customer happiness. What if the product is not as user- friendly as we thought it might be? What will that do to our reputation as a company?
4. Execution risk: What if we do not have the correct team members on our team? What if we cannot execute our project plan?
5. Legal risk: We may have contracts or SOWs with external companies. What if our legal team does not adequately review these contracts?
Assigning Value and Measuring Risk
Note: There are many ways to conduct a risk analysis. Many organizations have their own proprietary method of risk analysis that fits their needs. The examples in this discussion are fairly simple and only use a single method.
The value assigned to the risk depends on the type of risk analysis that you do. There are qualitative and quantitative risk analyses that the PM can use. In a qualitative risk analysis, the PM evaluates each risk and determines if it is high or low based on the severity of the impact and the probability that it will occur.
Let’s look at our PC and Software Installation Project. What are some of the potential risks?
1. Employees may be out for a part of the project.
2. Needed skills are unavailable.
3. More training will be needed.
4. Software updates needed cannot be found.
5. There are specification changes (scope creep).
The PM will decide if the impact of the risk would be low or high and if the likelihood of the risk is low or high. The PM would then put this into a risk impact matrix (RIM). Creating a RIM helps the PM, team members, and stakeholders keep the potential risks at the forefront and help with decision-making. Below is a simple version of a RIM based on our potential risks.
Table 1: RIM example
Consequences
Likelihood Low High
High
C
E
Low
D
A, B
 Another good example of a RIM is Figure 7.6 on page 250 in your textbook.
A quantitative risk analysis is helpful when there are several criteria for the probability of failure and consequence of failure (i.e., low, medium, high, severe, significant, and major). It is also helpful when there are costs assigned to risks. For this type of risk analysis, the PM will assign values to the criteria. Usually, these values are in the form of a factor or multiplier. For example, if the probability of failure is low, use .1 as the factor. If the probability of failure is significant, use .7 as the factor. Usually, there will also be categories of impact. For example, if Risk X occurs, how will this impact cost, schedule, and user satisfaction?
Review the consequence of failure example below.
Table 2: Consequence of failure example
Consequence of Failure
Score
Cost Schedule
Satisfaction
Low (.1)
Budget is fine Little impact Customers mostly happy. 1 issue
Medium (.3)
Budget overrun by 20%
Delay 10%
Few customer complaints. 2-3 issues
High (.5)
Budget overrun by 30%
Delay 20%
Several customer complaints. 4-5 issues
Significant (.7)
Budget overrun by 40%
Delay 30%
Customer satisfaction low. multiple issues
Once we have our factors and the costs, then we can calculate an impact value, which is provided below.
Table 3: Quantitative risk analysis example
Quantitative Risk AnalysisRisk Likelihood Probability Impact Expected Value
A Low 0.1 $10,000 $1,000.00
B Low 0.1 $5,000 $500.00
C High 0.5 $2,000 $1,000.00
D Low 0.1 $4,000 $400.00
E High 0.7 $20,000 $14,000.00 As you can see from the example, the risk with the highest cost is E.
Be sure to read Chapter 7 for this unit as there is much to learn about risk analysis and management. Also note that there are great examples in your textbook to refer to while you are working on your Unit III Course Project assignment.
We have now discussed several concepts, such as project scope, from the earlier units to help you create the start of your project plan. You should have a solid understanding of project planning now.
Reference
Pinto, J. K. (2019). Project management: Achieving competitive advantage (5th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.
Textbook: Pinto, J. K. (2019). Project management: Achieving competitive advantage (5th ed.). Pearson. https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780134730509