Coursework question: risk

I have been asked the following:

"I'm still a bit confused on how to do section 2.  Risks, could you help me on what to do. As we only focusing on one risk, do I put it in a table or just as a sentence? And like how do I identify approaches to dealing with the risk?"

The coursework specifies:

"Section 2: Risk  (5 marks)

This section examines risk factors associated with the project. Consider the following risk,  identify possible approaches to dealing with the risk, identify the appropriate impact and category of risk, and describe how you would propose to manage each risk if it occurred during the implementation stage of your project, including any containment action or contingency plan. It is not necessary to perform risk calculations here. 

The delivery of PCs and related equipment you have ordered for the client has been delayed; the supplier has stated that it might take another 8 weeks before it can be delivered.

(Maximum 1 page)"

See the slides for week 5, dealing with risk; this includes an identification of groups/categories of risk, such as contractual/environmental, management/process, personnel, technical.  Consider into which category this particular risk would fall.  How would you deal with this risk?  You might have arranged a penalty clause in the contract so that late delivery incurs a fine on the supplier; you might be able to use this towards getting equipment from elsewhere.

Any assumptions that you have made will have an impact on your plan, for example, whether you have assumed SMARTS needs to upgrade or replace their equipment; this will have an impact on the budget.  The delivery of the PCs might refer to those for the client, for the development team or for training purposes - the effect would be different in each case, and this in itself could mean different ways of dealing with the problem of the delay might be considered.

You would need to get approval from the clients (the key stakeholders) for any change you propose for carrying out the project - changes to the budget or schedule would need to be authorised.  Will the problem involve additional expenditure?  Would it delay the project?

Consider how to deal with the risk - the "T"s for addressing risk in the slides for week 5; any containment action or contingency plan that you have included.

You may have considered other risks that could occur, and have made arrangements for how to deal with such situations.  You could identify any such activities in your Work Breakdown Structure, and show where they occur in your Gantt chart.

The coursework is an example of a project that needs to be organised to enable you to demonstrate your skills in making preparations and creating workable plans; you are not expected to put these plans into action for this module (but it will help you for getting things organised for your final year project).  It is not possible to cover all possible eventualities in this module, but it does give you the opportunity to show how you would deal with such situations, and prepare you for a work environment where you will be required to make plans, deal with problems, find solutions and make decisions.

Hope this helps

Kay