The spreadsheet template offered is a combination of the ideas and characteristics of the possible risks in a resurfacing an old driveway with new asphalt project. The project developer should be able to touch upon all aspects of the work, predict the possible risks, and choose the most appropriate assumptions to achieve as many benefits of a new driveway as possible. The spreadsheet is a properly organized list of facts about the risks and the ways of how to overcome them or, at least, get ready for them.
There are several sections of the spreadsheet to pay attention to. These are risk description, likelihood, impact, detectability, category of the risk, indicators of the risk, possible responses and assumptions, and, finally, the status of the risk and the identification of who is responsible for a particular risk management (Kerzner, 2009).
In the project under consideration, six main risk areas should be identified and analyzed. Though, the likelihood of the weather conditions threats is about 50%, its impact is severe because it may result in a project deadline delay, worsened quality of new asphalt, and other adjustments that may be required. The problems with equipment delivery are about 26%; and though the impact of this technical threat is moderate, the project manager has to think about the alternatives available and include the services of a new company to rely on in a case of emergency. The risk of poor new asphalt quality is also moderate; still, its percentage is about 76% because its detectability is possible only after some a trigger event can happen. As soon as some problems with new asphalt take place, the workers in cooperation with a manager have to start doing something to change the situation and avoid the failure of the whole project (Mouratidis & Papageorgiou, 2010).
Old driveway removal can also be a risky business; in this case, it is a 23% moderate type of risk controlled by the workers. They have to use the best equipment and ask to set appropriate deadlines to make sure all work is properly done. The workers should also take the precautionary methods to avoid the threat of worsening their health conditions because of inappropriate working conditions or other reasons. Finally, the necessity to spend money on the accomplishment of the work is usually evident. Therefore, the project manager has to pay a certain attention to the risk of additional financial costs, because, as the spreadsheet shows, this risk is critical and usually hard to detect. The manager admits that more than 90% of likelihood is inherent to the project because of the presence of all the risks mentioned (Wan & Liang, 2012).
The spreadsheet offered to this project underlines the fact that all risks have an open status because the project has not been started yet. As soon as the managers define the periods for the work to be done, and the workers start taking some actions, the statuses of the risks may be changed accordingly. The status of the financial cost risks will be changed the last because it can be closed only after some time after the resurfacing process passes, and the outcomes of the work are evident.
In general, the risk management process is properly described in the spreadsheet and introduces a clear way of how, when, and by whom the risks should be determined. The identification of the risks’ levels helps to understand what kind of work should be done first and what kind of work may be postponed with fewer challenges. Still, the manager leaves a right to change or adjust all points of the spreadsheet because of some unpredictable events that can take place and influence the overall work.
References
Kerzner, H. (2009). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Mouratidis, A. & Papageorgiou, G. (2010). A rational approach for optimization of road upgrading. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 37, 1462-1470.
Wan, J. & Liang, L. (2012). Risk management of IT service management project implementation with killer assumptions. Technology and Investment, 3(1), 48-55.