PMP 679
Risk Analysis and Management
Semester Units
Prequisite
3
BUS 602
Course Description
Risk management is a concept that can be implemented in a number of ways. All good risk management approaches have the following characteristics: (1) There is a planned and documented risk management process for the project or program; (2) The process is based on a prospective assessment – the project management team looks ahead to find and manage possible problems; (3) The initial assessment is periodically redone to validate the initial findings and to uncover new problem areas; (4) The program has a defined set of evaluation criteria that covers all facets of the program; and (5) The on-going results of the risk management process are formally documented.
This course covers all aspects of risk management – risk identification – risk assessment – risk handling – and risk communication. A series of qualitative and quantitative tools are explained and illustrated with examples and workshop exercises. The emphasis is on developing usable processes and tools that can be immediately put to work by all members of a project management team.
Course Learning Outcomes
Define the steps of the risk management process.
Explain risk and risk factors.
Discuss the benefits from, and inputs to, risk management.
Distinguish between macro- and micro-risk management.
Describe project selection and the project planning processes.
State the objective of risk management planning.
Use the Project Experience Risk Information Library (PERIL) database.
Specify the risk categories, the evaluation of risks and the inputs to risk identification.
Examine the performance of high-level risk assessment.
Explain the sources of scope risk and how to set limits for scope risk.
Use the work breakdown structure (WBS).
Define market and confidentiality risks.
Outline the sources of schedule risk.
Discuss activity definition, estimating activity duration, and activity sequencing.
Outline the sources of resource risk.
Define resource, procurement planning and source selection.
Describe cost estimating and budgeting.
Define constraint analysis.
Compare scope, resource and schedule options and opportunity management.
Explain the assessment of plan alternatives.
Distinguish between additional project risks and “acceptable” risk.
Explain risk probability and impact assessment.
Determine the top or critical risks to quantify.
Discuss go/no-go decision making and how to decide which risks warrant response.
Numerically evaluate the probability and impact of each risk.
Use risk matrices and tables, decision tress and root cause analysis.
Categorize risk.
Frame risk avoidance, mitigation and transfer.
Apply contingency planning and fallback planning.
Specify the use of questionnaires and surveys.
Discuss project simulation and modeling.
Define project documentation requirements and project start-up.
Demonstrate the selection and implementation of project metrics.
Identify the need for management reserve.
Explain project baseline negotiation and project plan validation.
Discuss specification change management.
Define the objective and strategies of risk response planning.
State the objective of risk monitoring and control.
Explain status collection, trend analysis and metrics.
Discuss issue resolution and communication.
Outline the importance of project archives, reviews, risk reassessment, and risk response audits.
Explain the processes of project closure.
Discuss the importance of project retrospective analysis.