Project Management Challenges

Questions: 1. Using the case study, discuss the challenges of project management in a decentralised (humanitarian) organisation operating in an atypical (developing) context.2. Using the case study, discuss why the pilot project was successful and why was this success not sustained during the rollout? Explain the criteria you would use to assess the success or otherwise of the rollout.3. Produce a complete scope statement for the IHO rollout project using the information available in the case study and other sources. Discuss how developing a WBS could assist with problems that may be encountered in the IHO rollout project. Develop a work breakdown structure for the IHO rollout project that contains one level of details.4. Discuss why managing risks is important for increasing the chances of projects success. Identify four major risks that may affect or has affected the IHO rollout project. Using a Risk Management approach from the literature, produce a risk management plan for these four risks. 5. Discuss the leadership challenges that Fred Mendez faced in the IHO rollout project projects and the importance of leading a project such as this and not just managing it. Answers: 1. Introduction This study is all about risk management in IHO project and the process of managing the risk. The main focus of this study is on management of project in decentralized organizations. As mentioned by Andersen et al. (2014), IHO project focus on survey, charting and tracking of different vehicles and others. As per the case study, IHO is an organization named, International Humanitarian organization. In addition to this Cheng et al. (2014) stated, the IHO project is based on pre-defined standards and policies. In addition to this, IHO project risk management process is different for each phase of project cycle. That is, project risk management process depends on project lifecycle. On the other hand, in IHO rollout project there are number of risk which may affect the process. That is, financial risk, technical risk, economical risk and others. In this study, there is also a discussion about the risk involved in vehicle tracking system of IHO. 2. Importance of managing risk for increasing chance of project As mentioned by Deng (2013), the risk management process is important for each and every project. It helps in reducing chance of project failure. And it also helps in increasing the level of performance of project. On the other hand as stated by Eric (2014), it also help in reducing the effect of threats on project. The risk management process is dependent on various factors, that is, project lifecycle, different stages and others. In context to this Khong (2011) stated, the risk management process is different for each stage and its importance is also different. The management of risk in IHO project is dependent on their vehicle size or the size of target. As mentioned by Knopfel and Martinez (2012), there are number of risk involved in vehicle tracking project. That is, technical risk, economical risk, financial risk and others. As the tracking system of vehicle is fully dependent on technology and number of softwares and others. In case, if any single phase get disturbed complete tracking process will be affected. On the other hand, risk managing process increases the efficiency of tracking project and it also improves the market share of it. In context to this Parkinson and Spilker (2014) commented, risk assessment process increases the number of customers. That is, with the decrease of chance of risk, number of customers of tracking project will be increased. As commented by Ponnappa (2014), there are two type of risk, that is, uncertain or unknown and known. In case of vehicle tracking project, unknown risk can occur any time. So team should have proper plan for unknown type of risk. On the other hand, the major criteria in which unknown type of risk can occur are technology. In context to this Qayyum et al. (2013) commented, as the project work is mainly dependent on technology, so team should plan rescue plan form initial. The main factor on which project success is dependent is planning and implementation of it. The project manager engaged in vehicle tracking project of IHO should try to plan risk management plan from starting. The risk management plan should be for both external and internal risk. Some of the major internal risks are technological risk, internal team distribute and others. And major external risks are related to economy, environment, surroundings, client and others. In context to this Randolph (2014) stated, every risk can affect the working of vehicle tracking system. In addition to this, risk management plan implementation is also important for tracking project. And the risk managing process will also help project manager to run the coding stage successfully. As commented by Ratchanok et al. (2011), stage involved in vehicle tracking project of IHO are fund collection, procurement, supply, coding of project, centralized model development and others. In addition to this, project also involves the creation of hybrid fleet model development and other. The vehicles considered for tracking in this project are commercial as well as private. In context to this Stine et al. (2013) commented, in case of commercial vehicle tracking different database storage is required. And for private vehicle tracking different tracking system is required. So, the risk managing processes for both cases are also different. As stated by Stommel (2013), the risk managing process helps in reducing the chance of redundancy and errors in the project. It also helps in reducing the effect of different threats of project. The risk managing process is very important for vehicle tracking project of IHO. 3. Four major risks that affected or will affect the IHO rollout project As mentioned by Sumayya and Shefeena (2015), every project is affected by external or internal risk. Some of the major risks which may affect or has affected the IHO rollout project are as Technical problem based risk- In context to this Tladi (2012) stated, technical and technology based risk are different in IHO vehicle tracking project. The designing process of vehicle tracking system is based on different set of technical equipments. That is, communication tools, designing tool, testing tools and others. In addition to this Zare and Jahanian (2012) commented, with the help of these tools the designing, testing and other processes are completed. So, if any problem occurs in any of the tools complete development process of vehicle tracking will be disturbed. On the other hand, configuration of each technical component is very important in vehicle tracking process. The technical risks are related to support system process, documentation process and others. In addition to this, the main reasons behind technical problem risk are quality and productivity metrics. Technology based risk- As commented by Khong (2011), technologies used for this project are input, output, user interface and others. On the other hand, if the tracking system technologies are not update on correct time. Then market share of tracking product will also be reduced. The project manager of IHO should try to implement updated technology. It helps them to reduce the chance of failure of project and failure. In addition to this Deng (2013) commented, technology risk can occur due to diversification of technology and others. Some of the major technology on which tracking project is dependent are, GPS devices, tracking equipment and others. Operational based risk- In context to this mentioned Parkinson and Spilker (2014), operation is the main factor on which tracking system is based. Some of the major reasons behind operational risk are insufficient technical resources, improper training to employee and others. On the other hand, some of the other reasons of technology risk in IHO vehicle tracking project are, improper communication style adoption by team. As mentioned by Khong (2011), the operation of tracking project is dependent on their technology and technical tools. So project manager should try to plan risk management from the initial of all stages. It will help them to reduce the chance of risk and improve the performance of project. Programming based risk- In context to this stated Ponnappa (2014), IHO vehicle tracking is dependent on programming process. That is, the language used for programming should be compatible. On the other hand, the programming will only be completed once the testing is done successfully. In addition to this, there are some external risk which may affect the IHO tracking project are economical changes. Some other is continuous change of requirement of clients, change in market strategy and others. On the other hand, the vehicle tracking project is based on programming and coding. So, the best way to reduce the chance of risk is testing. As mentioned by Parkinson and Spilker (2014), the testing process should be done at every stage. 4. Risk management plan for major four risks which may or has affected the IHO project As mentioned by Khong (2011), the risk management plan for all four are same, but the procedure of different. The main focus of risk assessment is different for all the four risk. In context to this Ponnappa (2014) stated, risk management plan should be proper so that chance of risk will be decreased. The steps involved in risk management for IHO project are Establishment of data- As mentioned by Ponnappa (2014), the establishment of data about the risk will help team to know to about the risk in details. It also helps in identifying the domain or main reason about the risk. Apart from this, risk domain and influence of risk will be identified in this stage. In addition to this Randolph (2014) commented, risk objective and agenda of risk is identified. Identification of risk- In context to this Deng (2013) commented, the identification of risk is very important. It helps in planning the rescue plan. On the other hand, in this stage, the analysis of problem, risk sources and others are done. As mentioned by Khong (2011), some of the major risk identification methods are, risk charting, objective based risk identification process and others. The sources of risk in IHO vehicle tracking project are internal and external sources. In context to this Randolph (2014) commented, the risk management plan depends on the type of sources. It also depends on the project life cycle and project sources. Assessment of risks As commented by Eric (2014), after identification of risk sources and domain of risk the assessment of risk can be done easily. On the other hand, after the identification of risk in tracking project team should try to remove the risk. In context to this Deng (2013) stated, the evaluation of risk is very important on proper time. It will increase the performance level of tracking system and it will also help in increasing the number of customers. Action against the risk- The action or treatment of risk is very important as the evaluation of risk in project is done. As mentioned by Eric (2014), some of the major techniques used for risk management process fall under class, which are as, Risk retention Under the risk retention category, the process is maintained in such a way, that risk occurrence chance is less. On the other hand, every risk does not fall under elimination or transfer category. Risk reduction or mitigation In this category, the methods which reduce the level of loss among the process are considered. On the other hand, the team tries to reduce the chance of risk by using several methods. Risk elimination As stated by Ponnappa (2014), risk elimination process is also known as avoidance process. Under this process, the tasks which are not included in operation process are included. Risk transfer or exchange In context to this Deng (2013) stated, some risk can be removed by outsourcing it. It will pass the present risk effect on the project process. Risk management plan implementation- As mentioned by Eric (2014), implementation of risk management plan is dependent on the type or kind of risk. That is, technical, technology, operational or programming risks. The performance of risk managing preparation include on mitigation as well as other plans. In addition to this, the risk management plan is developed as per the requirement of project. Evaluation and review of risk management plan As commented by Ponnappa (2014), every process is having some or the other defect. The defect can be removed with the help of evaluation and review process. On the other hand, evaluation process of risk management plan help in reducing the chance of failure of plan. In addition to this, the review of plan helps in analyzing the error or fault. As stated by Deng (2013), the evaluation process should be done in proper time gap or periodically. 5. Conclusion The IHO vehicle tracking project is based on technology and different technical tools. In addition to this, the level of risk is also high in this project. So the project manager should always try to implement proper risk management plan. It will help them to reduce the chance of risk occurring and it will also help in improving the productivity. As per the case study, the four major risks which may affect the IHO project are technical, technology based, operation based and programming based risks. The risk management plan for each risk in this project is same. References Andersen, T., Garvey, M. and Roggi, O. (2014). Managing risk and opportunity. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Cheng, W., Xu, M. and Cheng, W. (2014). Efficient Vehicle Tracking for Automated Power Line Surveillance System. AMM, 704, pp.227-232. Deng, J. (2013). An Architecture of the Vehicle Tracking System Based on RFID. AMM, 278-280, pp.1653-1657. Eric Kirkland, C. (2014). Project Management: A Problem-Based Approach. Project Management Journal, 45(1), pp.e3-e3. Khong, D. (2011). 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