Project Management Assessing Risks as Part of

Project Management Assessing Risks as Part of Project Management The paradox of risk is that it can often be planned for yet rarely occurs in the manner that project managers expect when initiating a new program or project. The paradox of risk is that its severity and costs from a time and resource standpoint, in addition to constraint-based nature, rarely can be entirely planned for or anticipated, especially in the context of large-scale, fast-moving projects (Besner, Hobbs, 2012).

The intent of this analysis is to explain how risks emerged during the launch of two new products and explain how they initially emerged and eventually helped the project to meet and exceed customer requirements. Analysis of Risk in High Technology The overall costs of risk to a project can be catastrophic if not budgeted for initially in the project plan and project costs (Besner, Hobbs, 2012).

Being part of the new product development and launch team for a new computer peripheral, which was heavily dependent on the software being written to ensure the device could work with a variety of operating systems and applications, underscores this point. The device drivers which allow a computer peripheral to work with a PC often take months to write and can take an additional several months to get verified and tested by operating system provides including Apple and Microsoft.

The risk was that Apple would not allow the device driver to be included in the iTunes library and their well-known appstore. The entire development effort was specifically designed to avert this risk by basing the entire development methodology on their requirements. Apple still rejected it and it took nearly three more weeks to get it approved, which put the launch date of the new device, a tablet extension product, at risk of not being ready for the holiday season.

Only by budgeting for 50% more time for the device driver to be approved by Apple did the schedule survive and the launch date get met. The second situation illustrating the paradox of risk was the initial project plan for a new home my parents were building with a series of subcontractors on the east coast. They live in an area where the cost to build a house is about equal to buying one, and since they wanted a very specific type of home, they chose to build it.

The paradox of risk management was that the windows were very unique yet the time to install them was quickly closing due to winter arriving. Six large crescent, sunburst windows that would line the back of the house were ordered at the very beginning of the project, assuming they would arrive well before the first snow. These windows are over six feet tall, concentric and designed to fit perfectly into the crescent sunburst brick configuration of the house.

With the project plan for the house having these windows on the critical path my parents realized very early on that they were most likely slipping because the windows manufacturer had gone completely silent. My parents drove to Nashville to visit the manufacturer and walked through the factory to see how these massive windows were.