Assignment Brief: Read the case below: Case Study: Project Miner Background Scope of Work Schedule TASK: Project Miner You are a project manager at UNISA Mining Solutions (UMS), which develops systems to help mining firms reduce their exploration costs. UMS has been commissioned by EmpowerMinerals, a leading South African mining company, to develop technology that locates precious minerals with lower costs and higher productivity than current systems. In response, UMS has developed a system called Project Miner which uses pattern recognition technology and artificial intelligence programmes to identify gold from small rock samples and predict which sites have exploitable levels of gold, with a very high level of accuracy. The developed system is currently being tested with the client through a project nicknamed Project Miner. Project Miner involves testing the developed technology and software in the field at one of EmpowerMineral's mining concessions in the Northern Cape. Although the budget for the project is relatively small by mining standards, at R 13 000 000, the eventual business from this project might generate considerable revenues in the future for UMS. To your firm, this project is therefore of great importance and critical to its future revenues. One fine Monday morning you are called into an urgent meeting by your Director, who informs you that he would like you to take over Project Miner from its current project manager, Andrew, who is your colleague in the firm. He informs you that the project is going very poorly, and the client is very unhappy with the progress and the deliverables so far. On all counts, quality of outputs, cost, time and scope, the project performance is poor. You know that Andrew has never been a good project manager, but it may not be his fault and you would like to find out what might have gone wrong. At this meeting, the Director lays out several facts: The computer system uses new software developed by your company, but which has never been used in the field. In fact, the Director thinks that the system was tested in a laboratory but does not know for sure, and does not know if the system has ever been tested outside of the laboratory. The project business plan is silent on this, too. In the field, the system has repeatedly identified incorrect minerals as gold. In addition, the processing of identifying gold in the minerals is taking weeks instead of hours as mentioned in the project charter. UMS do not have the advanced programming skills needed so they subcontracted the development of the system to a subcontractor, who has since finished their work and been paid for the system they delivered. The poor performance of the system has surprised the subcontractor developers too. There is disagreement between UMS and EmpowerMinerals as to what the system was supposed to do. UMS, according to its scope statement, was to deliver a system that identifies whether the quantities of minerals in the drilled site are large enough to be exploited. EmpowerMinerals insist that in addition, it was also supposed to identify from a PGM4814 Managing Project Risk Jan 2024 S1 Page 18 of 22 UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership satellite where the drilling sites should be. There was no scope statement or project charter signed by both parties. Even after taking weeks to identify the gold and predict which sites have substantial amounts, none of the 12 identified sites so far have produced anything other than minute quantities of gold. This is costing the client, whom you developed this for, tens of thousands of rand a day in exploration costs. EmpowerMinerals is unhappy, as months have gone by with the drilling team mining in the wrong places. The Director also tells you that at the start of the project, certain risk items have been kept confidential from EmpowerMinerals. Key test results done on the system at your laboratory have been misplaced or lost and no backups exist. These were never found at the start of the project and had been identified as a risk. EmpowerMinerals now want to know if your company could share the initial test results with them. This was never a contractual agreement, so UMS has been avoiding this subject altogether. However, it has not improved relationships between the two companies. In addition, the project team, who have been trained on the system, is not capable of solving the performance issues. The warranty period for some of the software purchased from outside vendors and used by the computer system has expired and UMS decided against purchasing maintenance for the software, as it would have reduced profits by R 900,000. Instead, the project team members were team trained for a fraction of the cost on how to maintain the system. However, classroom training has proved ineffective. Andrew and the project team have been working for the last 7 months straight trying to get the project back on track, but now your Director wants Andrew out and you in. You are required to get the project back on track and turn it into a success. You decide to start by getting all the facts on the current situation from the project team to be sure that you have a clear understanding of the problems. You immediately leave for the site and gather Andrew and the project team for a fact-finding session. From the meeting with the team, you have found out the following: The ten project team members have lost hope in Andrew as a Project Manager and in the project as a whole because they could not find the solution. The team is also complaining about working for long hours in a remote site, and the fact that UMS has cut back on travel to Johannesburg. Many of the team (all employees) want to quit this project and go back to headquarters in Johannesburg to be allocated to another project. The team had access to the software for the system but cannot find any problems with it. Most of the team members are mining engineers, not ICT professionals. The team wants headquarters to send specialist experts from out of the company to look at the system, but there are no reserves in the budget for this. It is also unlikely that the financial manager will allow the use of company funds as they are not sure EmpowerMinerals will pay for it. EmpowerMinerals want the project to succeed and are willing to do whatever it takes, except putting in more money. They are keen for the system to work as their mining strategy depends on this: but it must work fast. They are willing to give any solution a try for another month. After this, they will declare the project a failure and ask for their investment in the project (R 13,000,000) back from UMS. They will then go to a rival developer who is developing a new system that shows great promise. You are now the assigned project manager, and your main project objective is to get Project Miner back on track, with the promise of a sizeable end-of-year bonus if you pull this through.

. Clearly identify and explain the key potential risks that might prevent you from successfully completing Project Miner and delivering results for the client, EmpowerMinerals.