Scalable Risk Management Approaches In Modern Project Management Practice Working Title

The topic area of dissertation is, “Dose Project Management practice of today meet the ever changing requirements for tomorrow Business?”. Therefore, select the working of this coursework is “Scalable risk management approaches in modern Project management Practice”.

Synopsis

This research topic is intended to come up with approaches that would ensure that risk management approaches are universal and hence applicable to any type of a project regardless of size or degree of complexity. The major reason why this research topic is significant is the dynamic nature of projects. Project complexity is increasing and this result in difficulty in the implementation of risk management strategies (Atkinson, Crawford and Ward, 2006). Risk management is one of the major components of project management. It is a component that greatly influences project success. The implication is that poor risk management strategies increases the chances of project failure while suitable strategies increases the chances of project success (Atkinson, Crawford and Ward, 2006). Therefore, the proposed study will address this problem by recommending highly flexible risk management approaches that can be applied to any type of a project irrespective of the project complexity. Based on this, it is correct to infer that the purpose of the proposed study is to enhance flexibility and scalability of risk management approaches.

In order to attain this purpose, the project will be qualitative in nature. This is based on the fact that the data expected to be used in the proposed research will be largely non-numerical. Additionally, this is an approach that will enable the researcher get deeper insights into the topic which would otherwise be difficult to achieve when other approaches are used (Creswell, 2008).

The major beneficiaries are project managers and project sponsors. Project managers will not be required to come up with new risk management strategies and this will help in time saving. On the other hand, project sponsors will be assured of timely delivery of their products because risk management is a component that greatly influences project success. Therefore, based on this, it is correct to infer that the proposed research study will be of benefit to all stakeholders in a research project. This is because the success rate of the project will be significantly increased.

The project will be structured in such a way that reliability of the final results is given great consideration. The first step will involve advanced literature review building on the information reviewed in the four core papers used in this research proposal. This will provide more information for analysis purposes and hence increasing the chances of getting reliable information.

The information collected from these sources will be analyzed. This will involve grouping of various risk management approaches used in projects of different complexities. This will enabled the researcher to determine the modifications which can be made on these risk management approaches to make them adaptable to any type of a research project. Once this has been done, the entire project process will be documented, that is, a dissertation presenting all information pertaining to the research process will be compiled.

Aim

The aim of this research is to come up with a set of risk management approaches scalable to any type of a project regardless of size or complexity.

Objectives

An objective is basically defined as the sub-goals that the researcher intends to achieve in a research study (Ceswell 2008). In order to achieve the above project aim, the research objectives will be:

  1.To determine current project risk management approaches.

  2.To determine limitations of these risk management approaches in project management.

  3.To recommend universally applicable risk management approaches in project management.

 

Search strategy

In searching for the most appropriate peer reviewed papers for this research, the search keywords and phrases used include, ‘risk management in projects’, ‘project risk management’, and ‘scalable project risk management’. These phrases were chosen based on the fact that their wording greatly matches the wording in the project title. This is an aspect that facilitated a more refined filter for systematic literature review. Therefore, rather than listing a very high number of sources, these keywords enabled the listing of only the most relevant sources for the topic under study. This is an aspect that helped in saving time in identifying the most relevant sources.

Google search engine was used in searching for peer-reviewed sources. The decision to use this search engine was guided by the high number of sites it indexes. This implies that it presents the researcher with the highest number of sources to choose from. This makes it possible to identify the most relevant sources for the topic under research. Additionally, in order to obtain only peer reviewed articles, ebscohost academic database was used. This is because this academic database provides a feature for searching only peer-reviewed articles. The process involved ticking on ‘peer reviewed’ checkbox in order to get a listing of only peer reviewed articles pertaining to the area of study.

On the other hand, the choice of the core research papers was wholly guided by the research topic and the research objectives. The paper titled “Risk management approaches and practices in IT projects”, was selected based on the need to first identify the overall practices and approaches used in project risk management. This source is designed to address the first and second study objectives. On the other hand, the sources titled “Managing Risks in Complex Projects”, and “On Best Practices for Risk Management in Complex Projects” are designed to address the second and third objectives. This is because it is necessary to determine the considerations which should be made in risk management in complex projects. Additionally, this was guided by the fact more adaptable measures can only be determined through consideration of various risk management approaches in projects of different complexity levels.

The motivation behind the inclusion of the journal article titled “Impact of Risk management on Project performance: the importance of soft skills” was to determine the impacts of soft skills in project risk management. This was based on the fact that while some researchers such as Bakker, Boonstra, & Wortmann (2010) advocate for hard skills, others such as Jaafari (2001) advocate for soft skills in project management. Therefore, it was important to research on the suitability of each in project risk management so that highly adaptive risk management measures are determined at the end of the research study.

Finally, the fact that all the sources were peer-reviewed also justified their inclusion in the research study. This is because the information contained in these sources has been verified. The implication of this is that these sources contain reliable information that would form an appropriate basis for the proposed research study.

 

 

Literature review

This section presents the research findings of four core peer-reviewed papers pertaining to the research topic in context. In each of the sources, the focus, the gap being addressed, the methodology, findings, and conclusions have been provided. Additionally, the relevance of these findings to the proposed research study has also been given.

1.Risk management approaches and practices in IT projects

The focus of the paper is on various risk management approaches used in project management. The gap that this research study seeks to fill is the lack of a standard risk management approach applicable to any type of a project regardless of complexity. The approaches studied include the evaluation approach, contingency approach and management approach. In order to achieve the study objective, the researcher uses literature review as the research methodology (Otniel, Nicolae and Claudiu, 2012).

Findings

Effective risk management entails three main approaches including the evaluation approach, management approach and contingency approach. Evaluation approach answers questions pertaining to the causes of project failure and has three major elements including known risk factors as project input, project risk management process. This approach aims at creating project predictability in new projects. Pertaining to project risk and causes of project failure based on information from previous projects (Otniel, Nicolae and Claudiu, 2012).

The management approach answers question pertaining to how project risks should be dealt with in order to prevent project failure. The focus is on determining those events likely to interfere with initial plan (Otniel, Nicolae and Claudiu, 2012).

Finally, the contingency approach advocated for risk management not as a separate process, but a process which should be embedded in various project procedures and processes (Otniel, Nicolae and Claudiu, 2012). It is correct to infer that the findings fit with the research goal because the findings propose three major approaches which can be used in risk management for any type of a project.

Conclusion

Risk management should be proactive and not reactive. It is a process that should involve all stakeholders including customers, contractors, suppliers, functional managers, and top manager, among many others. The risk management process should be highly interactive and should cover the entire project life cycle. This is the most effective was that the evaluation, management, and contingency approaches described in findings can be achieved. The author has cited various sources in his work for evidence such as Atkinson, Crawford and Ward (2006) and Han, & Huang (2007), among others. The intense referencing evidences the information provided. Based on this it is correct to infer that the findings are justified because they advocate for risk management to consider three main components: evaluation, management and contingency. Therefore, it is correct to infer that the researcher attained his or her aim.

The implication of this to the proposed research is that it should consider an integrated approach to project management. This means that the entire process management should be considered to be one coherent project and not comprising of different components. The proposed study should therefore seek to integrate the proposed adaptable risk management strategies into the project progress.

To reinforce the findings of this research study, similar findings were advanced by Han, & Huang (2007) who observed that communication in project management is a vital component in risk management. This further emphasizes the need for effective communication and coordination among project stakeholders.  Therefore, this information can be applied in the proposed study in emphasizing the need to go beyond the general risk management procedures and give consideration to conditions that support effective implementation of these processes.

2.Managing Risks in Complex Projects

The focus of this paper is on approaches which can be effectively applied in risk management in complex projects. The gap that this research project seeks to fill is the general approach used by most researchers in the development of project risk management approaches. Therefore, the driving force in this research study is the realization that different projects require different project management approaches. In order to get this information, the study uses a combination of questionnaires, interviews and surveys. A total of 535 professionals were involved in the research study comprising of supervisors, project team leaders, research and development directors, scientists, engineers, and managers (Hans, 2013).

Findings

Risks do not have similar effects on all projects. Risks assessment should be thorough putting risk into different categories such as risks with no effect on project performance, risks that affect the task or subsystems only, risks that affect project performance, and risks that impact and enterprise performance. These categories of risks should be properly defined and a cross-functional team should ensure that appropriate measures are put in place to address them. The researcher achieved the study aim by pointing out areas that should be given great focus in the management of complex projects (Hans, 2013).

Conclusion

The author concludes that risks do not affect all projects equally. The risk impact is based on the risk event and the managerial actions used in handling contingency. These influence the extent of risks in a project. Therefore, an effective project management entails a complex set of variables, management tools, organizational environment, and people. Simple analytical techniques may not be effective in risk management. However, the efficiency of these simple analytical can be augmented by more adaptive approaches that rely on extensive data gathering. Additionally, risks should be dealt with during the early stages of a project development life cycle. This can be achieved through broad or intensive scanning of all segments and its environment. Therefore, project managers should consider establishing a conducive environment for cross-functional collaboration and communication among all stakeholders. This would facilitate early risk detection and management (Hans, 2013).

The authors in this research have extensively referenced their work. The consistency in their results with those of other researchers in the same field such as Han, & Huang (2007) justifies their accuracy. The researcher has also achieved his aim as his study found that risk management in complex projects require a complex set of variables such as people, task and the environment. The effective management of these variables results in effective management of project risk.

3.On Best Practices for Risk Management in Complex Projects

The focus of this paper is on the approaches that project managers can use to cope with challenges in risk management of complex projects. The gap that this research study aims to address is the fact that researches have not addressed the specific problem of the challenges in managing complex projects but they have taken a general approach in proposing approaches for project risk management. In order to highlight on these challenges, the study adopts literature review as the approach for data collection (Benta, Podean and Mircean, 2011).

Findings

Risk management should be proactive and not reactive. This is the major first step in dealing with challenges in highly complex projects. Variability and correlations of independent events are major sources of project risks. The sources of variability include environmental changes during project progress, and intrinsic variability which may be in terms of costs and time (Benta, Podean and Mircean, 2011). The findings of this research are related to the gap that the researcher was trying to address. This is because the researcher has managed to identify the areas that result in variability in project risk management.

Conclusion

The study concludes that the best way of addressing risks in project management is carrying out a highly detailed analysis. Additionally, a precise risk definition should also be provided. Changes in project management plan needs decisions to be made at the correct level. This may include the reassignment of personnel, determine or change budgets, and make appropriate commitments with other people outside the project (Benta, Podean and Mircean, 2011). The researcher has evidenced his work with the use of intensive referencing of the work presented. This intensive referencing justifies the validity of information presented by the researcher. A good example is that similar results were obtained by Jaafari (2001). The researcher managed to point out the main areas that project managers should focus on in order to address the challenges in complex projects.

The implication of this study finding to the proposed research is that in researching for adaptable risk management approaches, focus should not only be given on the process but also on the external factors that may affect the process.

4.Impact of Risk management on Project performance: the importance of soft skills

The focus of this paper is to expound the association between risk management practices and project success. The paper describes this with consideration to the level of project complexity. The major gap that this research sought to fill is the absence of adequate research pertaining to the relationship that exists between risk management and project success as the level of project complexity increases (Carvalho and Junior, 2015).

The methodological approach used in this research project was the use of literature review for the development of conceptual framework and survey. Questionnaires were used as the survey tool. A total of 263 projects drawn from eight industries were used in this research study (Carvalho and Junior, 2015).

Findings

In project management, both hard skills and soft skills are required in project risk management. However, most of the studies emphasize on hard side risk management which suggest that organizations should develop risk management tools, techniques, and processes. The hard side of risk management addresses only the managerial component of project uncertainties. This means that they help manage variability and foreseeable uncertainties. On the contrary, soft side skills are used in the management of unforeseeable uncertainties. Based on this, the study found that for effective project risk management, both soft side and hard side skills are required because the absence of any of the two may result in project failure (Carvalho and Junior, 2015). It is correct to infer that the researcher attained the research aim because he established that both soft and hard skills are equally important in project risk management.

Conclusion

The hard side of project risk management impacts only on one component of project success, that is, time.  Therefore, the absence of hard side of project risk management is likely to result in project failure. It is correct to infer that this finding is valid based on the fact that time is one of the major components in determining project success (Sauer, Gemino, and Reich, 2007). A project is successful when completed within the set period of time. Based on this, it is correct to infer that the researcher attained his aim.

Additionally, the fact that time is a major factor in project success has been advanced by other researchers such as Sauer, Gemino, and Reich (2007), and Jiang, Klein and Ellis (2002) who argues that for a project to be successful, it should be meet user requirements, and be completed within the set time and budget. The application of this to the proposed study is that consideration should be given to those approaches that would ensure projects are completed within time and budget. Therefore, the proposed adaptable methods should also consider these success indicators.

 

 

Overall Conclusion

Project risk management is an area that greatly influences project success. Unforeseeable risks have a higher chance of resulting in project failure compared to foreseeable risks. It is based on this that soft skills which focus more on unforeseeable uncertainties should be greatly considered compared to hard skills. However, the fact that absence of soft skills can also result in project failure implies that both soft and hard skills are of essence in project risk management. This is the surest way of ensuring that both foreseeable and unforeseeable uncertainties are addressed. On the other hand, it is paramount that a comprehensive risk analysis and definition be provided in order to ease the process of risk management.

Additionally, based on the information presented in these core papers, it is also evident that risks do not affect projects equally but the impact is influenced by project complexity. Various dynamics that affect project performance should be well evaluated. This entails a complex set of variables associated with people, management tools, and the overall organizational environment. The most effective approaches in project risk management include shortening the development cycles, ensuring that project feasibility study is carried out early enough and simplifying work and its transfer processes. Risks should be identified and dealt with very early in the project development life cycle. This implies that risk management should be proactive and not reactive. Additionally, the management should promote an environment that facilitates effective collaboration and cross-cultural communication among all project stakeholders. Therefore, there is need for involvement of all stakeholders to be actively involved in project risk management.

This information has a number of implications to the proposed research. The first implication is that the research should not focus on the general steps in risk management but also on the modifications which can be made on these processes in order to make them adaptable to any type of a project. This would require a review of the risk management approaches used in successful simple and complex projects. The integration of these approaches from the two types of projects would facilitate the identification of highly adaptable risk management approaches. Therefore, based on this methodological approach, it is correct to infer that the conceptual framework and theoretical framework will be largely based on various risk management practices which have been used in projects of various sizes. Based on this framework, it will be possible for the researcher to recommend more flexible approaches. This will be of great importance to the industry because projects are increasingly getting complex and also risk management approaches. Therefore, the approaches that will be proposed by this research study will increase the rate of project success regardless of complexity.

Therefore, the review of the above sources forms a basis for further steps. These steps will comprise of searching for more information pertaining to project risk management practices stipulated in these sources. This will include on the aspects to be considered in risk analysis and definitions, and the environment that should be created in order to have a suitable environment for stakeholder collaboration and communication.  This will be achieved through systematic research whereby the sources for inclusion in the research study will be based on the level of relevance to the research topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Core reference

Benta, D., Podean, L. and Mircean, C. (2011), ‘On Best Practices for Risk Management in Complex Projects’, Informatica Economic? , 15(2), pp142-152.

 

Carvalho, M. and Junior, R. (2015), ‘Impact of risk management on project performance: the importance of soft skills’, International Journal of  Production Research, 53(2), pp321-340.

 

Hans, T. (2013), ‘Managing Risks in Complex Projects’, Project Management Journal, 44(2), pp20-35.

 

Otniel, D., Nicolae, B. and Claudiu, B. (2012). ‘Risk management approaches and practices in IT projects’, Journal of Economic Science, 21(1), pp1014-1020.

 

 

Additional reference

Atkinson, R., Crawford, S. and Ward, S. (2006).‘Fundamental Uncertainties in Projects and the Scope of Project Management’, International Journal of Project Management, 24(3), pp687–698.

 

Bakker, K., Boonstra, H. and Wortmann, D.(2010). ‘Does Risk Management Contribute to IT Project Success? A Meta-analysis of Empirical Evidence’, International Journal of Project Management, 28(2), pp493–503.

 

Creswell, J.(2008), Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Han, W., and Huang, S.(2007). ‘An empirical analysis of risk components and performance on software projects’, The Journal of Systems and Software, 80(7), pp42–50.

 

Jaafari, A. (2001).‘Management of Risks, Uncertainties and Opportunities on Projects: Time for a Fundamental Shift’, International Journal of Project Management, 19(3), pp89–101.

 

Jiang, J., Klein, G. and Ellis, T. (2002). ‘A measure of software development risk’, Project Management Journal, 33(3), pp30–41.

 

Sauer, C., Gemino, A. and Reich, B. (2007). ‘The impact of size and volatility on IT project performance: studying the factors influencing project risk’, Communications of the ACM, Vol.50, No.11, pp79–84.

 

Wallace, L., Keil, M., and Rai, A. (2004). ‘How software project risk affects project performance. An investigation of the dimensions of risk and an exploratory model’, Decision Sciences, 35(2), pp289-321.