Risks And Mitigation Plan For Cynapse Inc.

Overview of Cynapse Inc.

PMBOK Guide (PMI, 2017, 6th edition), for successful running of an organisation, it is essential to identify the risks in the company. This not only help the organisation to identify the threats present in an organisation but also for finding the techniques for mitigating them (Buttrick, 2015).

The scope of the Risk Management are:

• Identification of the project management risks using risk register
• Determining the techniques for mitigation

According to the PMBOK Guide (PMI, 2017, 6th edition), a budget of a project is determined after estimating the overall cost of the project. The benefit of the project budgeting is to create the baseline estimation for the project expenses upon which the performance of the stakeholders of the project can be controlled and monitored (Dash, 2015).

Risk Id.	Risk Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Description of the risk	Impact	Likelihood	Rating	People responsible	Mitigation
1	Estimation of time	The project charter created along with the Gantt chart may fail to estimate time. The time management is one of the very important to follow the time slots divided for particular works; otherwise the chances of the project delays increases.	High	Medium	4	Project manager	Implementation of proper project schedule. Making use of Gantt chart.
2	Change requirements	The changes done in the system may affect the entire process of the system. The production of the organization as well as the system may be affected in that case.	Medium	Medium	3	Client	Keeping in touch with the client on a daily basis. Arranging meetings with the stakeholders regularly.
3	Budget risk	The risk of the budget is most prevalent in a project management. The failure of a project manager to estimate the budget of a project is one of the greatest failure. The project may completely fail due to that.	High	High	4	Project manager	Proper scheduling of the project. Identification of the proper products for the project.
4	Technical risk	The risk of the system failure may occur due to the poor maintenance of the system.	High	Medium	3	IT expert	Proper maintenance of the equipment on a regular basis.
5	Database risks	The databases are one of the most vulnerable parts of the system as they are prone to the hackers. A simple “drop” command can erase the existence of the data bases.	High	High	5	IT expert	Regular up-gradation of the system. Implementation of the security protocols.
6	Human error	Human is prone to error. Improper training, lacking in proper knowledge about the system leads to the human error.	Medium	Low	2	Employees	Proper training of the employees.
7	Scope creep	Improper documentation of the project leading to un-controlled results.	Medium	Medium	3	Client	Planning project scopes in front of the stakeholders.
8.	Conflict	The difference in opinions among the employees of the organisation gives rise to the conflict. There are more than one way to perform a task, imposing one’s opinion on the other gives birth to conflict.	High	Medium	3	Stakeholders	Proper communication between the team members and other stake holders.
9	Resource shortage	The shortage of resources, like raw materials, the labours, modern technology, human resources. etc.	High	Low	2	Project manager	Requirement of proper documentation.
10	Quality risk	Reduced quality of the products developed in an organisation hampers the reputation of the organisation.	Medium	Low	2	Project manager	Keeping up with the stakeholders. Sticking to the timeline and the scope of the project. Monitoring the suppliers’ activities along with the employee performance.

 

Tools and practises to mitigate schedule risks: 

A Project schedule is prepared such that the project can be completed and wrapped-up within time. Certain practises that can reduce the risk of the project schedule failure. They are given below:

Reduction in the amount of critical paths: A project is most likely to have more than one critical path. With more number of critical paths in a project schedule, the chances of finishing the project on time reduces.

Lesser dependencies on the activities: If there are multiple dependency factors in project where a certain procedure is dependent on the previous processes, the risk of schedule failure can occur. This is because the steps cannot be completed without the completion of the step on which it is dependent upon.

Scheduling the activities with risks earlier: The activities which are complicated must be planned earlier in order to complete the work on time. This helps in early realisation of the costs in the projects.

Reviewing the schedule: regular checking up on the table reduces the chances of the failure in the schedule. For this Gantt charts can be used. Gantt chats helps in the identification of the time required to complete a certain task. This also helps in identifying the areas where extra efforts has to be implemented (Varajão, Colomo-Palacios & Silva, 2017).

The intellectual property risks can be reduced if the following steps are followed:

• Sharing of the limited data: Not all data is needed to be shared. Sharing only the required contents helps in reducing the risks of the loss of the IP.
• Use of the non-disclosure agreements: While making an agreement it is essential to create an NDA. NDA or the Non-Disclosure Agreement is very significant as legal actions can be taken with the agreement is broken anyhow.
• Achieving the Provisional Patent: Provisional patent can be achieved for the purpose of the project.
• Making a trademark of the product: Protection can be achieved when the ideas of the organization is strongly in favor of the name of the company.
• Listening to the intuitions: If something wrong is sensed, it must not be taken for granted, this may be an alarm for the risk.

Project scope is very essential for a project. According PMBOK Guide (PMI: 6th edition, 2017) Section 11.5.2, it determines the path in which the project is moving towards. The way to gain control over the project are given below:

Documentation of the requirements: The items required for the execution of the project must be documented while the initial planning of the project was done. This was the project scope can be kept in mind and followed strictly. Straying away from the project scope causes difficulties in handling the projects.

Major Risks Facing Cynapse Inc.

Setting up proper change management process: Change is necessary for a project according to the requirements of the project and sometimes due to the change in the demands by the client. These changes has to be monitored such that project requirements are fulfilled.

Developing a project schedule: clear scheduling is important as the sequence of the task to be performed can be analysed and understood from there.

Verification of the scope of the project from the stakeholders: The stakeholders are the ones who are directly involved in a project (Hopkin, 2018). The client as well as the employees must be aware of the project scope such that any change in the scope can be administered in the initial phase.

Engagement of a project team: Teamwork is essential for the successful completion of a project. Thus as a project manager, creating a team and involving them in the project correctly helps in avoiding scope-creep.

Planning of a budget in a project management is a significant step. According to the PMBOK, this determines the successful completion of a project within a given timeline and the provided resources (Ho et al., 2015). The budget risk can be avoided with the help of the steps:

1. Identification of the major items for the project and estimation of the cost of those items in the initial phase of the project helps in reducing the budget failure in a project.
2. Advisories from the key personnel on the major products of the project can help in identification of the correct item for the project along with correct price.
3. More information must be gathered on the items from the SMEs.

For the purpose of the mitigation of the risks, proper analysis of threats must be performed and they must be documented. Documentation helps in keeping track of the activities occurring in a project. In any case if the documentation has some sort if discrepancies, someone or the other from the project management team has to take responsibility for it. Reviewing the documentation on a regular basis reduces the chances of the documentation risk and helps in managing the project efficiently.

References: 

Buttrick, R. “Thoughts on IT Project Risk”, Praxis, 2015 (Black Swans)

Dash, S.N. (MPGU, 2015) “PMP Prep: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Risk”

Ho, W., Zheng, T., Yildiz, H., & Talluri, S. (2015). Supply chain risk management: a literature review. International Journal of Production Research, 53(16), 5031-5069.

Hopkin, P. (2018). Fundamentals of risk management: understanding, evaluating and implementing effective risk management. Kogan Page Publishers.

PMBOK Guide (PMI, 2017, 6th edition), Part 1, Section 11.2.3 “Identify Risks: Outputs” p.417 to 11.2.3.3 “Project Document Updates”, p.418.

PMBOK Guide (PMI, 2017, 6th edition), Part 1, section 11.4 “Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis” to 11.4.3.1 “Project Management Update”, pages 428-.436.
PMBOK Guide (PMI, 2017) Part II section 3.9 “Estimate Activity Duration”, p.574 to 3.9.3 “Project Document Updates”, p.575

PMBOK Guide (PMI: 6th edition, 2017) Section 11.5.2 “Plan Risk Responses: Tools and Techniques” p.441 through 11.5.3.2 “Project Risk Mgt. Plan Updates”, page 447.

Rose, K. H. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fifth Edition. Project management journal, 44(3), e1-e1.

Varajão, J., Colomo-Palacios, R., & Silva, H. (2017). ISO 21500: 2012 and PMBoK 5 processes in information systems project management. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 50, 216-222.