Land Forces Academy Nicolae Balcescu, Sibiu

MANAGEMENT ENGLISH

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
-essay-

Author:
AGACHI FLAVIU- GEORGE

Project management is a process of leading a team of capable people in

planning and implementing a series of related activities that need to be
accomplished on a specific date with a limited budget. Because of its nature,
coordinating all these activities requires a process approach.
The process each manager follows during the life of a project is called the
Project Management Life Cycle. A proven methodical life cycle is necessary to
repeatedly implement and manage projects successfully. During the life cycle of
any project, proven and tested project management processes or best practices are
should be initiated. The project management life cycle consists of five phases:
initiation, planning, executing, controlling and closing.
During any of these phases there are also nine management processes to be
taken into consideration: scope management, time management, budget
management, quality management, integration management, risk management,
team management, communications management, procurement management.
The process that I am going to focus on is risk management.
Every project involves risks and every project needs to have a management
strategy for dealing with the threats and opportunities represented by each risk.
A risk is a future event that may or may not happen, but if it does occur it
will have an effect on project scope, schedule , cost or quality. It may have one or
more causes and if it occurs it could have one or more effects. All project activities
carry some element of risk, which are uncertainties about them that could affect the
project.
The project risk management knowledge area is divided in six processes:
plan risk management, identify risk, perform qualitative risk analysis, perform
quantitative risk analysis, plan risk responses, monitor and control risk.
1. Plan risk management- this is the process of creating the risk management
plan. This plan details how the project management team will perform risk
management for their project. Establishing this protocol early on the project
ensures that all members of the project management team are using the same
methods to evaluate risks and that the risk management tasks are budgeted for in
the project plans.

This plan forms part of the project management plan and describes how risk
management will be structured and performed on the project. It contains :
methodology, roles and responsibility, budgeting, timing, risk categories,
definitions of risk probability and impact, revised stakeholder risk tolerance,
reporting formats, tacking.
2. Identify risks- this is the process of determining risks that may affect the
project and assessing the impact of the risk should it occur. This information is
documented in the risk register, a list of all the identified risks, their root causes,
categories and responses. All project team members should be encouraged to
identify risks so they can develop and maintain a sense of ownership and
responsibility for the risks and the associated risk response actions.
There are several tools and techniques that can be used to identify risks: the
documentation reviews - structured reviews of all project documentation up to this
point in time; information gathering techniques - expert interviews, brainstorming
workshops, the Delphi technique; checklist analysis, SWOT analysis.
3. Perform qualitative risk analysis - this process analyses each risk from
the risk register in terms of its probability and impact on the project if it were to
occur. It should be performed as soon as possible after risks have been identified so
that appropriate time and resources can be allocated to the more serious risks. It
uses a probability and impact matrix, to rank and prioritize risks, and this
information is placed back on the register.
4. Perform quantitative risk analysis - this is the process of analyzing the
effect of those risks identified in the previous process a having the potential to
substantially impact the project. It may be used to assign a numerical rating to
those risks individually or to evaluate their aggregate effect. There can be used
several techniques as: sensitivity analysis - analyzing the project to determine how
sensitive is to particular risks by analyzing the impact and severity of each risk;
Monte Carlo analysis - is normally calculated by computer by analyzing many
scenarios for the project schedule and calculating the impact of particular risks.
5. Plan risk response - is the process of developing options and actions to
enhance opportunities and to reduce threats to the project. It is important that
planned responses are appropriate to the significance of the risk, cost effective,

realistic within the project context, and owned by a responsible person. The
common strategies for negative risks or threats: avoid, transfer, mitigate, accept;
and the strategies for positive risks or opportunities are: exploit, share, enhance,
accept.
6. Control risks - is the process of implementing risk response plans,
tracking identified risks, monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, and
evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project. Planed risk responses,
that are included in the project management plan are executed during the life cycle
of the project, but the project work should be continuously monitored for new,
changing and outdated risks.

In conclusion, risk plays a significant part in the planning of any project that
requires a commitment of time and resources. A project manager should have a
clear understanding of the risk tolerance of the project. The depth of understanding
a project manager has on the stakeholders' degree of risk tolerance is essential to
the smooth management of the project. The perceptions, culture and environment
play a significant part in forming their attitude towards risk.