Project Management Planning and Risk

Natural Soup Project PROJECT STATUS REPORT Currently the Natural Soap Project is roughly halfway through its planning phase. Thus far it has already experienced some losses of technical resources which has caused delays as well as anxieties. This analysis will provide a project status update.

MILESTONE CHART Work Duration Start Finish % Work Complete Project Planning 112 hrs Wed 10/7/15 Mon 10/26/15 Technical Team 112 hrs Wed 10/7/15 Mon 10/26/15 Requirements hrs Wed 11/11/15 Manufacture Soap hrs Thu 11/12/15 Mon 12/14/15 Testing hrs Deployment hrs Wed 12/16/15 Wed 12/16/15 SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE SUMMARY OF RISKS AND ISSUES Highlights of Risks Anxiety among members of the technical team Competition could potentially launch 3 months earlier Placed other projects at risk due to borrowed assets Highlights of Issues Loss of two key technical resources day delay DISCUSSION Risk is defined as an event that has a probability of occurring, and could have either a positive or negative impact to a project should that risk occur.

Project risk is one of the hardest project components to plan for and the project contains significant risks as well as already being behind schedule. One option would be to attempt to develop a crash schedule. In this case, the fundamental consideration to be made is whether the costs from crashing the project in such a significant manner exceed the benefits to be gained by having the project completion scheduled and if there are enough resources available to achieve the desired outcome.

However, given that the project is already behind schedule and one of the risks includes the fact that a competitor might bring their product to market first, a crash schedule might be a viable option. Furthermore, since the project's projected end date is during the holiday season, it is likely that sales could increase if the product was brought to market earlier. There also exists a trade-off consideration between quality and schedule that may pose problems to the viability of the finished product.

For example, a crashed schedule could produce an inferior product. Another conceivable risk is that the project will increase its budget and resources significantly, while also failing to meet the deadline. Thus the company might have to accept both the costs of the project's.