410 Public Forum 250 Words Each APA Format

Please respond to both POST1: (A question from the professor) and POST2: (A peer response) in at least 250 words each.

MY ORIGINAL POST:

Hello Class,

Scope Risks in Project Management

Project management is an elaborate process that
requires the identification and mitigation of the various risks that
are probable to ensure the successful implementation of the project
plan. One of the risks that a project manager has to deal with is a
scope risk. Scope refers to the processes that are scheduled to occur to
allow the proceeding of the project from one phase to the other
(Bissonette, 2016). Therefore, scope risk refers to the various
unprecedented processes that may arise within the implementation of a
project plan. Identifying and mitigating these risks is key in ensuring
that the project proceeds without getting out of the financial
projections to allow profitability in the long run.

There are three categories of scope risks. One
of the most prevalent forms is scope creep. This refers to the essential
requirements that crop up as the project proceeds (Kendrick, 2015).
Fulfilling these requirements is imperative in the realization of the
objectives. Creep risk may occur as a result of poor planning in the
project planning phase. They can also result from the decisions of new
stakeholders who were not involved in the initial plan. The respective
activities that were unplanned for and require to be fulfilled represent
the other form of scope risk that is referred to as the gap (Ference,
2015). The other form of scope risk is called the scope dependencies.
During planning, there are the necessary inputs that are budgeted for
beforehand. However, as the project proceeds, other inputs may come up,
and their presence is vital in enabling the development of the project.
These inputs are the scope dependencies.

Of all the above-mentioned types of scope
risks, the scope creep is the easiest to identify and mitigate. This is
because it primarily involves processes that, if their probability of
occurrence can be determined beforehand, mitigation would be
straightforward. To reduce this risk, you need to analyze all the
project’s stakeholders that include the project manager, third parties,
and clients. Identifying the kind of changes that they can cause to the
project is key in scope creep mitigation.

A Black Swan refers to an unpredictable event
beyond the standard expectation of a situation. Usually, a Black Swan
results in severe damage to an organization (Chappelow, 2019). In
project management, sometimes, there are unpredictable risks that may
arise in the course of a project. Since these risks are unpredictable,
it is only important that the management builds robust systems to
prepare for them. An example of a Black Swan is terrorist attacks that
may leave for the closure of a premise, thus distorting operations
completely.

References

Bissonette, M. M. (2016l). Project risk management: a practical implementation approach. Project Management Institute.

Chappelow, J. (2019). Black Swan. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackswan.asp

Ference, S. B. (2015). Don’t let scope creep lead you out of bounds. Journal of Accountancy, 220(3), 18-19.

Kendrick, T. (2015). Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-proofing your project. Amacom.

POST1: (A QUESTION FROM THE PROFESSOR)

xxxxx,

Welcome to week three and thank you for the continued engagement.
The passage above states that scope creep (out of all of the other
risks) is the easiest to mitigate. Many of your peers also believe
this. What if the scope creep is occurring due to external factors?
For example, I was volunteering for the Red Cross and we had to assist
with the building of the external facilities for storm damage. Due to
the weather, our project’s timeframe and added scope were required due
to requiring more out-buildings as the storm was getting worse.

POST2: (Peer Response)

Hi Everyone;

Scope Creep:

The PRBOK Guide describes scope creep as the uncontrolled expansion
to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and
resources is referred to as scope creep (PMI, 2017, p. 154). Change on
projects is inevitable, so the possibility for scope creep is also
inevitable. Scope creep is a slow of gradual increase in scope beyond
the original plan. Scope creep can occur with lack of clarity to the
original specifications and poorly defined initial requirements. It is
important to understand your scope of work beforehand in order to avoid
additional work later.

Scope Gap

This is when a requirement is not fulfilled, or delivered (Mahler,
2016). An example would be if you have a certain amount of time and
money to complete something and then the customer asks if you can
include more, before you think about the cost, time and resources, you
say yes I can deliver. Now you are on the hook for more than what you
have time, money and resources for.

Scope Dependencies

Scope dependencies are due to outside risks caused by external
factors. When you have activities that are dependent one another to
finish or provide a piece of information before it starts, it poses a
risk in not only your scope but your schedule as well.

Scope Gap would be the easiest to mitigate because you can control
your commitment to additional deliverables. Before you commit, make sure
you have the time, cost and resources available to deliver on your
promise.

Black Swan

The term “Black Swan event” has been part of the risk management
lexicon since its coinage in 2007 by Nassim Taleb in his eponymous book
titled The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Taleb
uses the metaphor of the black swan to describe extreme outlier events
that come as a surprise to the observer, and in hindsight, the observer
rationalizes that they should have predicted it (Martin-Vegue, 2018).
There may be something that can be done to reduce the impact (e.g.
diversification of company resources in preparation for an earthquake)
or perhaps nothing can be done (e.g. market or economic conditions that
cause company or sector failure). Nevertheless, risk managers would be
remiss to not point this out. I have not had to experience this within
my professional career but I feel like I would be wrong to say that I
have not experienced this at all, my personal life, I am sure of, has
had some black swan moments.

~Marnie

References

Kendrick, C. (2003, September 25). Overcoming project risk. Retrieved
from
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/overcoming-pr…

Mahler, B. (2016, May 15). Scope Creep or Scope Gap? Retrieved from
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/scope-creep-gap-bob…

Martin-Vegue, T. (2018, March 19). Black Swans in Risk: Myth, Reality
and Bad Metaphors. Retrieved from
https://www.fairinstitute.org/blog/black-swans-in-…