Project Life Cycle Steps influencing effective Risk Management

Question

PART A: Based on your studies, the readings in this Unit and your research of the literature, prepare a paper (1000 words approx) to describe what is meant by Project Life Cycle and discuss its implications on the effective management of risk.

PART B:You are involved in the design project for a new hybrid passenger vehicle. Consider what risks are likely to be present across the life cycle of the vehicle and develop a plan which describes:

How you envisage those risks would be managed/controlled, and
The possible implications of those risk controls for the design team

Module 3 comprises the following two book chapters:

Loosemore M., Raftery J., Reilly C. & Higgon D. 2006, Risk Management in Projects, Chapter 1 Risk and Uncertainty in Projects, Taylor and Francis Zou P. & Sunindijo R. 2015, Strategic Safety Management in Construction and Engineering, Chapter 6 Safety in Design, Risk Management and BIM, John Wiley & Sons These two readings provide all the supporting information students will need to successfully complete Assignment 3

Answer

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Part A
Project Life Cycle:A project is the set of activities which have definite a start and finish. For project to get accomplished, it needs to pass through various phases known as the project lifecycle (PLC). A project is always required to be conceptualized along with its accessory boundaries within which it is required to be planned, executed, monitored and closed during this total PLC. Distinct phases of a project life cycle which is referred to as the project management body of knowledge (PMBoK) are of 5 distinct types. These distinct phases are the initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. The below figure is shown with all the phases of PLC starting from the initiation to closing stage.

Project Life Cycle

The function of each phase of the project lifecycle are as below:

Initiation of the project: During this stage, the concept goal and objective of doing the project are defined and we agreed with all the stakeholders (20|20 Business, 2018). During this stage especially, the case study is developed along with all commercial and time estimates although these estimates are very rough but are tracked and monitored throughout the project. Even the project manager is also appointed and provided authority at this stage.
Planning of the project: During the stage, all the knowledge areas of project management are developed so that accordingly the project can further be executed. The overall project management plan is developed as a part of the integrated management. The project time, schedule and cost baseline estimates are also required to be defined for tracking it throughout the project lifecycle to measure the performance as a part of the monitoring and controlling process.
Execution of the project / installation of the facility: During this stage, the actual project execution work takes place where all the deliverables are defined as per the earliest stage of planning. All the deliverables are required to be delivered as per the quality parameters defined in the planning stage.
Monitoring and controlling the project: During this stage, all the deliverables which are being delivered to the execution stage are continuously monitored and controlled whenever required to deliver the project as per plan.
Closing a project: Finally, along with the final documentation, the overall project deliverables are handed over to the client with lessons learned.

Risk Management:It is a process which is followed through the project lifecycle to identify, analyse and plan for mitigation for any positive or negative risk which year going to arise during project life cycle and impact the project goal and objective. Risks are mainly of two types the threats and the opportunities. The threats are the negative risk which has negative impacts of the project deliverables, and on another hand, the opportunities are the positive risk which can have positive impacts on the project goal and objective (Landau, 2016). So, during this project lifecycle, we need to define the risk proactively rather than be reactive to avoid any negative impact of the threats in the project deliverables. For managing the risk properly, we need to first identify all types of risks which can impact the project during the whole project lifecycle. Once the risks are identified then the whole list should be analysed qualitatively and quantitatively to obtain the rank of risks. Then as per the severity ranking of the risk, mitigation plans are developed and if required some contingency reserves are also preserved in the cost estimate to counter such situation. Similarly, the positive risks are the opportunities are identified and assist to generate the probable profits which the project can have from such risks throughout the project life cycle.

The implication of PLC on effective Risk Management
The overall project life cycle is required to be considered for the proper risk management. All the parts of project lifecycle should be considered very well during the identification of risk so that the list can be analysed properly and the beat occasion plan could be developed for each stage of the project life cycle. The project life cycle starts from the very first stage of the project that is conceptualization or the initiation stage and should be finished at the closeout stage.

Traditionally, risk identification and mitigation plan are supposed to be done during the planning stage whereas, in current Project Management concept, the risk management is required to be done for the whole project life cycle and throughout the project life cycle to minimise the chances of its impact on the project objectives and goals due to an unknown factor (Kishk & Ukaga, 2008). Overall project success cannot be estimated without conducting a proper risk assessment of the project life cycle. The overall project success depends on the level of satisfaction project could provide to its stakeholder's expectations. As a part of the risk management, the risk identification and the definition of the mitigation plan is the process which is required to be done throughout the project life cycle so that the risk involved at every stage can be analysed and handled properly.

To make the risk assessment and its management very effective and fruitful, all the features and stages involved in the development of overall project life cycle are required to be analysed. This will help in identification of the risks and accordingly the mitigation plan and cost reserves can be kept aside, which can be adopted in case of occurring of the risk. If in case any stage of the project life cycle is best to be analysed then the same point or phase could remain as a risk for the whole project. Every stage which is left over to be analysed can become an additional risk for the whole project and it is so all the stages of the project life cycle are required to be analysed properly for developing an effective risk management.

Part B
New Hybrid Passenger Vehicle
List of Risks: Hybrid vehicles have many risk factors which are required to be considered while developing the design of the vehicle. Several types of risk which can be involved during the design stage of a new hybrid vehicle are as below:

There is a threat of getting electrification or high voltage electric shock to the people doing the maintenance of the electric cables passing through the vehicle (Health and Safety Executive, 2018)
There is a potential threat of having relatively high voltage current in the system even when the vehicle is in off mode, this threat is required to be considered to avoid any kind of damage to human life
Replacement of battery is a common phenomenon in hybrid vehicles which need human interface this can cause harm to the human life
The presence of electric motor said hybrid vehicles make them very much silent in nature which can cause a human being getting unnoticed and these silently running Motors can harm human life
Due to the presence of Mechanical, Electrical and Software all combination of three system there is a threat of getting the corporation and communication gap which can cause a serious accident due to miss-communication

Risk Assessment: In risk assessment, all the identified risks are required to be assessed or analysed qualitatively and quantitatively to develop the proper ranking of the risk according to their severity rate (Loosemore, et al., 2006). These severity rates shall be further analysed and plan for the risk control. The assessment of the identified risk are as follows:

Risk No.	Description	Magnitude of Risks		Severity rating (Zou & Sunindijo, 2015)
Risk No.	Description	Likelihood (1 to 5)	Impact (1 to 5)	Severity rating (Zou & Sunindijo, 2015)
1	The threat of getting electric shock due to heavy cabling in the vehicles	Occasional (3)	Catastrophic (5)	High Risk Rating (15)
2	The threat of high voltage in the vehicle even when in off mode	Likely (4)	Major (4)	High Risk Rating (16)
3	The threat of getting injured while replacing high capacity batteries	Unlikely (2)	Moderate (3)	Medium Risk Rating (6)
4	Threat of getting injury due to the presence of silent parts like electric motors in the vehicle	Likely (4)	Moderate (3)	High Risk Rating (12)
5	Threat of getting miscommunication among the various complex systems like mechanical, electrical and software can cause a serious accident by sending wrong signals to the driver	Likely (4)	Catastrophic (5)	High Risk Rating (20)

Risk Mitigation plan

Risk No.	Threats	Severity rating	Action	Mitigation Plan
1	Threat of getting electric shock due to heavy cabling in the vehicles	High Risk Rating (15)	Reduce by engineering control	The design phase itself all the cabling are required to be designed as such so that they are routed through a concealed structure which is basically a bad conductor of electricity so that the chances of getting electric shock can be reduced
2	Threat of high voltage in vehicle even when in off mode	High Risk Rating (16)	Avoid the threat by providing the engineering solution	The presence of high voltage should always be provided some engineering solution so that they can be neutralised before the opening of the vehicle for doing maintenance.
3	Threat of getting injured while replacing high capacity batteries	Medium Risk Rating (6)	Reduce the threat by providing additional engineering solution and PPE	The chances of getting an injury during the replacement of battery can be reduced by providing some hydraulic mechanism below the battery which can automatically and mechanically help the people to raise the heavyweight battery without any effort and provide additional PPE for protecting the personal body from injury
4	Threat of getting injury due to the presence of silent parts like electric motors in the vehicle	High Risk Rating (12)	Avoid the risk by isolating the hazard from people	As a mitigation plan for the hazard presented the hybrid vehicle, all the motors running silently should be back with distinct colour and should be notified during the better fracturing stage itself by the engineering department so that the different coloured item can be visualised during the better its type and the chances of getting injury can be avoided
5	Threat of getting miscommunication among the various complex systems like mechanical, electrical and software can cause serious accident by sending wrong signals to the driver	High Risk Rating (20)	Avoid by using BIM system	The threat of miscommunication between the systems can be reduced by implementing the high-end Engineering solutions like the implementation of the BIM. BIM stands for the building information modelling, it is a software device which can be used to control all the three systems like mechanical Electrical and software together to have clear communication among them so that the catastrophic accident can be avoided right at the designing phase of the hybrid vehicles

Implication of Risk control in Design phase
This safety features or the mitigation action plan to either avoid or reduce the impact of the threats for using the hybrid vehicle should be included right in the designing phase of the vehicle itself. All the features identified above as the threat to the development of the new hybrid vehicle should be included in the tree design phase. It should detail out with the conceptual design phase and finally the same design should be communicated to the manufacturing plant or the fabrication shop to incorporate it for the final development of the hybrid vehicle. By including all the mitigation features in the designing phase of the hybrid vehicle, like inclusion of concealed cabling of all electrical cables. Moreover, by providing provision for grounding the system so that it can ground all the high voltages before opening of the car. For maintenance, separate identification of the silently running motors with distinct colours during the designing phase can help in reducing the hazards. Even by using the building information modelling system to develop proper communication between the different systems required to be included in the designing phases of the new hybrid vehicle. All these features are required to be considered from the designing phases itself to reduce the cost of application of all these threats to human life and promote the use of the new hybrid vehicle.

References
20|20 Business, 2018. What is the Project Life Cycle?. [Online] Available at: http://2020projectmanagement.com/resources/project-lifecycle-and-methodology/what-is-the-project-life-cycle [Accessed 30 April 2018].

Health and Safety Executive, 2018. Electric and hybrid vehicles. [Online] Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/mvr/topics/electric-hybrid.htm#risks [Accessed 30 April 2018].

Kishk, M. & Ukaga, C., 2008. The Impact of effective risk management on Project Success. Cardiff, UK, 24th Annual ARCOM Conference, pp. 799-808.

Landau, P., 2016. What Is Risk Management on Projects?. [Online] Available at: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/what-is-risk-management-on-projects [Accessed 30 April 2018].

Loosemore, M., Raftery, J., Reilly, C. & Higgon, D., 2006. Chapter 1 Risk and Uncertainty in Projects. In: T. a. Francis, ed. Risk Management in Projects. s.l.:CRC press, pp. 1-31.

Project Management Overview, 2017. Project Lifecycle. [Online] Available at: http://projectmanagementoverview.com/project-lifecycle/ [Accessed 30 April 2018].

Zou, P. X. W. & Sunindijo, R. Y., 2015. Safety in Design, Risk Management and BIM. In: Strategic Safety Management in Construction and Engineering. s.l.:John Wiley & Sons, pp. 152-179.

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