Question

Continual Technology Training (CTT) is a technology learning centre founded by Dr. Alan Hong. CTT provides short technical courses catered to adults working in Singapore’s science and technology sectors. The courses conducted, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, equip learners with the latest technical knowledge that they can apply in their work.

CTT started three years ago at Happy World Plaza with one classroom and Dr. Hong was the only trainer. Recently, with the promotion of life-long learning by the government, CTT’s business has grown rapidly. Today, it has expanded to three classrooms with six staff members and revenue is estimated to exceed S$1M next year. Also, CTT faces some new competitors in this niche market.

In February 2020, CTT’s management signed a partnership agreement with Skill Enhancement Lab (SEL) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (this need not be your choice of preferred location in the previous question), for them to conduct CTT’s courses.

Assuming you are CTT’s Business Development Manager, Dr. Hong has appointed you to be the Project Manager to set up and run a technology classroom in SEL’s premise as soon as possible. The purpose is to cater to Malaysian students wanting to attend lessons conducted remotely by CTT’s trainers in Singapore. You will be stationed in Kuala Lumpur during the project implementation period. SEL has also assigned its Information Technology (IT) Manager, Mr Syed to work with you. A locally sourced renovation contractor, Design & Build (D&B), has appointed its designer, Ms Carrie Lim, to work on this project. The project is named the Remote Training Centre (RTC) Project. It is the first project that all three parties will work together.

The CEO briefed you on his expectations. He wants the RTC Project to start on 1st March 2020 and to be completed by 15th May 2020, which coincides with CTT’s Fifth Anniversary.
Your team has worked out the list of activities as shown below:

Table 1: Activity List for Remote Training Centre (RTC) Project

Activity Number	Description	Duration (days)	Predecessors
1	Remote Training Centre (RTC) Project
2	Conduct initial project meeting	1
3	Study course's requirements	5	2
4	Apply renovation permit	10	2
5	Purchase renovation materials	12	3
6	Purchase technology and computer equipment	15	3
7	Hacking of walls and floors	5	4
8	Lay tiles	6	5,7
9	Lay cables	4	8
10	Install technology equipment (e.g. robotics)	8	6,9
11	Install computers	7	6,10
12	Test overall systems	3	11
13	Press release and publicity	5	11
14	Train SEL staff	3	12
15	Commission Remote Training Centre	1	12,13,14

Question 4
To be an effective project manager, you must be proactive in identifying and managing the risks.

(a) Analyse four (4) potential risks of the RTC Project, one from each of the following categories: Technical, External, Organisational and Project Management. Present your answer in the Table 2 format.

Table 2: Risk Identification

Item	Category	Description of Risk	Consequence
Risk 1	Technical
Risk 2	External
Risk 3	Organisational
Risk 4	Project Management

(b) For each of the risks identified in Part (a), develop a risk response plan for the RTC Project Team. You shall first examine the most appropriate risk response way (i.e., mitigating, avoiding, transferring or retaining the risk), then formulate an effective response. You can only repeat at most one risk response way.
Note: You are not required to do any Risk Contingency Planning.

Answer 1

Q 4 (a) Analyse four (4) potential risks of the RTC Project, one from each of the following categories: Technical, External, Organisational and Project Management.

Ans:

As per PMBOK, The Project risks can be classified as mentioned below:

Technical, External, Organizational and Project Management.

These four types of risks can further be broken down to have a better visibility of each type of risks. Here are some activities which cater to these risk types.

Technical: The risks associated with requirements, technology, interfaces, performance and reliability and Quality are technical risks.

External : Subcontractors or Suppliers, Regulatory, Market, Customer, Weather etc are external risks

Organizational: Risks like Project Dependencies, Resources, Funding, Prioritization belong to Organizational risks.

Project Management : The risks associated with Estimating, Planning, Controlling, Communication are the project management risks.

So in this problem we need to identify at least one potential risk from each of these 4 types

Item	Category	Description Of Risk	Consequence
Risk 1	Technical	The complexity of robotic equipments	If not installed properly with an experienced engineer and quality material, it might delay the project further
Risk 2	External	Any damage or delay due to the extreme weather conditions	It will lead to potential increase in cost and failure to deliver with in time line
Risk 3	Organizational	Over utilization of Resources	This might increase the cost
Risk 4	Project Management	Proper Communication among team member	If no proper communication happens among the team members, then there is confusion on roses, responsibilities, progress etc.

b) For each of the risks identified in Part (a), develop a risk response plan for the RTC Project Team. You shall first examine the most appropriate risk response way (i.e., mitigating, avoiding, transferring or retaining the risk), then formulate an effective response. You can only repeat at most one risk response way.

Risk Plan

There are negative and positive risk mitigation plans. Below are the plans mentioned for each risks.

Item	Category	RIsk	Response Plan
Risk 1	Technical	The complexity of robotic equipments	Avoid it by hiring an experience engineer, workers and purchasing quality equipments
Risk 2	External	Any damage or delay due to the extreme weather conditions	It can be transferred to an insurance company. Any damage or delay can be compensated.
Risk 3	Organizational	Over utilization of Resources	This can be exploited to finish the project sooner in case any delay occurs to due to any dependencies.
Risk 4	Project Management	Proper Communication among team member	This can be mitigated by implementing communication and coordination softwares.