Kitchen Remodel Project Risk Management

You acquire knowledge risk management analysis a project. The project remodeling family kitchen. To prepare project, research kitchen remodeling work considerations project success. Hypothesize effect risk management project.

Project Risk Management

Overall goal of risk management is to guarantee an increase of opportunities and decrease of risk. Risks are uncertain events that occur in the process of project planning and implementation and can have both negative and positive effects (Metzger, 2006). Risk management entails definition of procedures involved in implementation of a project and the likely risks to be encountered in the project activities. The purpose of coming up with a risk management plan is to come up with the ideal framework for use by the project team. The team will use the risk management plan to identify risks and developing strategies that mitigate, enhance or change the negative risks. This paper presents a risk management plan for a family kitchen remodel identifying the risks related, assessing and monitoring mitigations measures (Wysocki, 2009).

Process of risk management

In risk management, the process of analyzing the type, degree and visibility of the risk related is important. This will facilitate the organization of the kitchen remodeling aspects and appraising necessary precautionary measures for successful completion of the project. Process of risk management will start at the project conception/initiation phase. This is in order to capitalize on ensuring maximum benefit in project implementation and completion. The role of the project manager will be to ensure that the risks are identified, analyzed and minimal negative effect ensured. For the purposes of implementing the kitchen remodeling project the process of risk management will entail; risk identification; qualitative assessment of risk-perform, enumeration and appraising risk mitigation measures; monitoring and control and risk closure.

The process of risk management is continuous flowing from one phase to the next such that; phase one of risk management will be followed in sequence by the second phase (Wallis, 2012). Initially, the first phase of the Risk Management process is risk assessment, including risk identification and risk analysis. The next phase is the appraisal of mitigation measures followed by implementation of risk management measures and control of measures. The processes are iterative since in each phase the previous phase will be factored in so that to guarantee the desirable outcome.

The approach for this project is strategic, as well as tactical to ensure that all risks principles are embedded within the project team. Mitigation responses will be assigned to each identified risk and utilized to create a response risk plan. This will ensure that each risk is mitigated properly and does not impact the project’s success.

Risk Identification

Risk identification is the process of determining which risk may affect the project and documenting their characteristics. Risk identification is a critical step in the risk management process to ensure a complete list of risks is identified. The risk identification process involves the participation of the project manager, project team members, the family member and authority persons involved in the construction (Wallis, 2012). The identification process is iterative; therefore, the frequency of iteration and who participates will vary based on the severity of the situation. The following information gathering techniques will be used to identify risks for the kitchen remodel project: Brainstorming; Delphi technique; Interviewing and cause Analysis. Information gathered by using these techniques will be useful for identifying risks and ensure all key stakeholders are engaged (Wysocki, 2009).

The family kitchen remodeling project is likely to face up with the following challenges. The list is not exhaustive but, those identified are likely risks and they will serve the purposes of the risk management plan. The Project Manager will be responsible for identifying and communicating potential risk and their possible impacts to the client. Additionally, everyone shall have specific responsibilities allocated at the different level of the project management team. This process will allow the client to make an informed decision to assume the risks voluntarily and remain engaged in the risk management process.

Budget Over-run

Kitchen remodeling will require the purchase of fittings and equipment’s whose costs may be highly fluctuating. These fluctuations may cause unintended changes in cost of the project on the overall. Since the project involves family kitchen remodeling, funds available to meet the costs of desired remodeling may be insufficient. In this case project may stall or come to a sudden halt in the middle. To mitigate the observed risk, the project manager will need to renegotiate with kitchenware suppliers or the family so that budgetary needs are met. The project manager may also need to delay the project works so that adequate funds are available or renegotiate with family for lesser scope of work. Where the project may be stalled down by price raging and competition among competitors, the project manager should consider implementing a standardized process. The process shall cater for responding to vendor inquiries and ensure procurement contracting proceedings are followed accordingly to lock in reasonable rates early.

Inexperienced staff or Project Manager

Owing to an inexperienced staff or project manager, learning curves may decrease productivity. Training may impact overall timeline, high turnover may occur and project will delay due to lack of attention. The project manager will mitigate this risk by, hiring the right project team to leverage knowledge, implement training early, designate a more senior person to coach or mentor and put a strong quality assurance process in place to ensure project alignment.

Complexity of design requirements

Design may be to complex or unattainable considering the previous model of existing kitchen and house structure. Due to design requirements and likely complexity, design implementation decisions need to be delayed and complexity regarding layout be discussed. The project manager will mitigate this risk by utilizing visual mockup designs to clearly layout the design architecture and ensure all design architecture has been approved before beginning project work.

Delays or failure in kitchen inspection

Kitchen remodel designs may require inspection and approval by authorized bodies. The delay or failure of such an inspection my extend the project completion period and increase costs stretching the budgetary limits. This may also reduce the morale of the project team and the family members. The project manager will need to make prior arrangements with inspectorates and put inspection in the checklist. To make the process of inspection smooth all documentation should be in order and there should be a walk-through process prior inspection. Invitation of the inspector to the site to review and provide pre-inspection certificates should be done early in advance.

Project dependencies

Due to project dependencies delay on one aspect of the project in terms of timeline, will lead to the overall project delay. The impact is greater if issues occur and the project manager is incapacitated to take control and foresight to manage the project manager. Additionally, project performance and budget will most likely be impacted. The project manager will mitigate this risk by decomposition/compress timeline; adding another analysis phase; ensuring project specifications are detailed; allowing more time to the project schedule.

Dwindling interest from the stakeholder

If the stakeholder/sponsor is not engaged or interested in the project may experience lack of support, lack of long-term commitment, changes or concerns will not get addressed in a timely manner and taste will change once project is completed. To mitigate these risks, the project manager will ask household members to participate by forming part of the project team. They should be involved in planning and making arrangement on the requirements gathering. The project manager should create a user group to surface concerns and build enthusiasm; ask for help from the family members in order to generate excitement. Encourage them to be proactive in sourcing for resources and ideas when need is present.

Uncertainty in economic Conditions

Due to changes within the economy, the project may most likely experience uncertainty. This may cause decisions to be delayed, lack of focus or commitment from stakeholders, or the project may end owing to the severity or impact. The project manager will mitigate this risk by renegotiating the scope to fit within the funding available and holding off on initiating project development until certainty in economic condition resumes or adequate budget or lesser scope is established.

New competition/competitors

Due to competition or competitors, the project may experience lack of coordination, difficulty managing vendors, or procurement process may become cumbersome and impact project timeline. The project manager will establish a formal approval process and create a steering committee to represent the entire stakeholder community.

Sudden changes in weather conditions

Owing to unpredictable weather conditions, acts of God like a catastrophic event, hurricane tornado can most likely occur. The project manager will mitigate this risk by establishing an insurance plan that will cover loss; reviewing the model “ordinances” to ensure all existing regulations and enforcement mechanisms are sufficient; in cases where adequate lead time is available-take action to reduce the risk (i.e., Evacuate or if a flood is coming move to higher grounds.

Insufficient funding

Owing to insufficient funding the project timeline and budget will most likely be impacted. To mitigate this risk, the project manager will renegotiate scope to fit within the funding available and do not start the project until an adequate budget or lesser scope is established

RISK ANALYSIS

Once all risks are identified, a risk register will be populated to give a summarized outlook of the likely challenges of the project. The risk register is the primary output from identifying risk and the place where most of the risk information is stored. It becomes a part documents and is also included in historical records that will be used for future projects (Wallis, 2012). Once identified, risks will be assessed, and a strategy devised to eliminate them, or at least to formulate a plan to contain them with acceptable bounds. The core team members will initiate the process and then involve additional team members throughout the life of the project.

RISK MITIGATION STRATEGY

The objectives of risk mitigation and planning are to explore risk response strategies for the high risk items identified in the qualitative and quantitative risk analysis (Metzger, 2006). A number of industry-accepted methodologies are available to assist project managers develop their risk management process. In risk mitigation planning, it is necessary to create measures to minimize the threat or eliminate it altogether. Additionally, it appropriate to find ways to increase the impact or likelihood of opportunities. For all remaining threats that are unable to be eliminated, response will include: implementing a contingency plan or implementing a fall back plan if the contingency plan fails. The project manager will ensure all mitigation techniques are implemented in a timely manner, the effort mirrors the severity of the risk, techniques can be utilized to mitigate multiple risks or address a cause of multiple risks, and the right team is engaged in the strategic, ongoing process.

Risk Monitoring, Controlling and Reporting

Monitor and control risk is the process of implementing risk response plans, tracking identified risk, monitoring residual risk, identifying new risk, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project (Wallis, 2012). At this point risk will be assigned a risk owner who will report the status of each risk during weekly team meetings throughout the life of the kitchen remodeling project. As risk approach on the project schedule the risk response owner will periodically report to the project manager on the plan’s effectiveness, effects of any unanticipated occurrences, and needful correction to address the risk appropriately. As new risks occur, the risk will be analyzed to determine project impact then re-prioritized during the weekly status meetings. All changes will be documented and updated within the risk register and project plan accordingly.

Risk Closure

Outcomes of the risk reassessments, risk audits, and periodic risk reviews will include identify new risk events, updates to probability, impact, priority, mitigation plans, risk ownership or closing risk (Wysocki, 2009).

Conclusion

The goal of risk management is to reduce the possibility of threats and increase the possibility of opportunities of a project. Although risk management cannot guarantee the one “right” decision, it does help provide the best information possible (Wallis, 2012). Based on this risk management plan, we concluded that formalizing an effective risk management plan with strategic mitigation techniques, throughout the life cycle of the project will ensure better allocation of risks that align with project goals.

References

Metzger, D.Z. (2006). Systems Approach to Strategic Project Management. International Journal of Project Management, 7(3), 56-106.

Wallis, P. (2012). Risk management achieving the value proposition. . Government Finance Review,, 28(1), 36-42.

Wysocki, K., Robert (2009). Effective Project Management. United States of America: Wiley Publishing, Inc.