BSB50820Diploma of Project Management

BSBPMG536 Manage Project Risk Distance Learning Activity Week 4

Case study - Office Relocation

BACKGROUND

The head office of Defence Housing Australia (DHA) is currently located at 26 Brisbane Ave, Barton ACT. Following the ,expiration of the lease it is necessary to relocate to new premises.

A previous project team has located new premises and is currently finalising the lease on these new premises. That project was sponsored by the GM People & Corporate Capability. The lease will be a standard 5 years plus five plus five. The building is currently occupied by the Department of Environment and Energy which, similarly, is relocating to new premises.

The internal configuration of the new premises is not currently suitable for DHA and some fit-out work will need to be done prior to DHA moving in. These works include such things as minor changes to internal walls (non-structural), dismantling existing offices, construction of new offices & meeting rooms and the creation of a reception/waiting area at the front of the office.

DHA Head Office includes the following:

• People and Corporate Capability
• Property and Tenancies Services
• Property Provisioning Group
• Portfolio Management Group
• Finance
• Governance
• Managing Director

The combined staff total in these is approximately 275.

Other key points to note include:

• Today is 1st February 2019.
• The lease on the new premises is a standard 5-year lease with two 5-year extension options.
• The lease is planned to come into effect on 1st May 2019
• The lease on the existing DHA Head Office building expires on 30th September 2019.
• The new premises were built approximately 10 years ago.
• The new premises require internal fit-out as the current configuration of space is unsuitable for DHA needs.
• DHA has agreed to manage and fund the fit-out, as opposed to the Landlord completing these works and incorporating the costs into annual rent.
• The new premises have 80 car park spaces on-site. The existing DHA Head Office building has 72.
• The new premises are in a prominent location and occupy 2 levels of equal floor-space, including the ground floor.
• The new premises are approximately 2 kms from the existing office.
• The premises have adequate entry and egress and meet the requirements for workplace safety, fire safety and disability access.
• The current tenants of the building are due to relocate to their new premises on or about 31st March 2018.
• The current tenants have agreed to allow DHA access to the building prior to their departure for planning purposes but no physical work can commence until the commencement date of the new lease.
• It is already known that the data cables in the building are of a lower category than that required for DHA's IT. These will require upgrade.
• The building has been certified as not containing asbestos of any description.
• All staff within DHA Head Office are aware of the requirement to relocate. Not all staff have a positive attitude to this, however.

YOUR ROLE

You have been selected as the project team to undertake this project. All project team members retain responsibility for their usual operational work.

PROJECT SPONSOR

The Project Sponsor for this project is the GM People & Corporate Capability.

THE PROJECT BRIEF

The project team has been provided a brief for the project. The brief contains the following key information:

• The move must be completed as soon as possible.
• Staff and managers from all business units must be engaged and consulted about the fit-out and move.
• Fit-out and signage must be consistent with DHA branding and guidelines.
• Building works must be tendered out to local building contractors.
• An official opening of the building must take place within one month of opening.
• It is intended that existing furniture being used by staff in their current locations will be used in the new premises.
• Normal DHA delegations of authority will continue to apply to this project.
• A budget of $230k has been allocated for the project. Any expenditure above this amount must be met by the Business Units concerned from their operational budgets for the current financial year.
• Project team member salaries will continue to be funded from operational budgets. However, in keeping with current policy in the management of major projects within DHA, staff 'effort hours' must be estimated as part of the budgeting process, and actual effort hours used must be recorded.
• An IT technician from BS & T will oversee the relocation and installation of all IT equipment, servers, hubs, routers etc.
• Specialist IT removalist will be contracted and managed by the IT technician from BS & T. The costs of this will be met from the project budget.
• The Project Sponsor has advised that the initial budget for the project has been set at $500k. This will be Capital Expenditure (CAPEX).
• Some new furniture may be required to ensure a minimum standard of furniture is maintained throughout the building.
• All business units are to share common facilities within the building including;
  • Kitchen / Lunchroom
  • Training room/s
  • Meeting rooms
  • Storeroom/s
  • Mail sorting area
  • Amenities
  • Bike cage in the carpark
• A common reception is to be shared by all business units.
• DHA policy is for the office to generally be an open plan configuration, subject to the following requirements:
  • 8 offices are required for the MD, CFO, GMs and Special Counsel.
  • 1 Boardroom
  • 8 meeting rooms
  • 4 quiet rooms
• 'Hot desks' must be figured into the seating plan.

Develop a risk management plan

A Project Risk Management Plan is a document which describes how the risks of a project will be identified, analysed, evaluated and treated throughout the life of the project. The Risk Management Plan Is a sub-plan of the Project Management Plan.

The PMBOK Guide defines project risk as, "an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, will have a positive or negative effect on a project's objectives".

The nature of project risk management

Every project is exposed to risks. These could be risks related to meeting critical deadlines, delivering on budget, meeting quality standards and delivering on stakeholder expectations. Project teams also need to focus on traditional organisation risks such as health & safety, reputation, business continuity, environmental, legal and compliance.

Risks are not static. Risks and risk management need to be reviewed constantly to ensure that the most up to date information is being considered with respect to current risks, levels of likelihood and consequence and the appetite or tolerance levels for those risks.

Project risk management must always be informed by the risk management policy and procedures which apply more broadly across an organisation. This means that the project risk register for example should reflect the risk register in general use within the organisation.

Risk management roles and responsibilities

A critical requirement in organisations is that accountability for all aspects of business operations is clear and unequivocal. So, it is with project risk management. Clearly outlining risk management roles and responsibilities supports this accountability.

Categories of risk

It is good practice to group risks into categories of risk. Categories may include schedule, budget, quality & compliance, health & safety, legal, regulatory and reputation.

Risk management standards

Supporting accountability for risk management should be the application of good practice risk management principles and processes. The ISO standard AS/NZS ISO 31000: 2018 details 5 steps in the risk management process. These are:

• Establish the risk context - involves analysing the context and environment in which the project is operating.
• Risk identification - the use of various techniques to identify potential risks. This could include stakeholder consultation, brainstorming, reviewing previous issues, etc. The goal of this step is to identify all potential risks that the project may be exposed to.
• Risk analysis - is the process of critically reviewing any potential risk to gain a detailed understanding of how it could occur, and what the range of consequences might be if it does occur. It also requires an analysis of the likelihood of it occurring and the consequence/s if it does.
• Risk evaluation - involves determining whether an identified and analysed risk is tolerable or not, given the risk appetite of the organisation or project.
• Risk treatment - is the decisions that are made in response to a risk. Typically, this would be to mitigate the risk, tolerate the risk, eliminate the risk or transfer/share the risk.

Risk management documents

Risk management decisions that have been made on the project should be recorded. Documents developed as part of this process should include:

• Risk register
• Risk matrix
• Issues register
• Risk treatment plans

Risk matrix

A risk matrix is used to determine the severity of risk. It is a grid which incorporates risk likelihood on one scale and risk consequence on the other. Good practice indicates that a 5 X 5 matrix is warranted:

• Likelihood scale - generally goes from one extreme (rare) through to the other extreme (almost certain)
• Consequence scale - generally goes from one extreme (negligible) through to the other extreme (extreme)

The consequence scale of the matrix is influenced by risk tolerance. For example, a risk that had a financial impact of $5,000 might be negligible for a multi-million dollar organisation, but severe for a small community-based organisation.

You may find the following resources useful:

• What is project risk -https://www.projectmanager.com/training/what-is-project-risk
• How to build risk culture -https://www.projectmanager.com/training/build-risk-culture
• How to analyse risks -https://www.projectmanager.com/training/how-to-analyze-risks-project
• Manage risks on smaller projects -https://www.projectmanager.com/training/manage-risks-smaller-projects

Questions

1. For the case study provided above, outline risk management roles and responsibilities. Consideration should be given to the role and responsibilities of the following;

• Steering committee
• Project Sponsor
• Project Manager
• Subject Matter Experts (eg. qualified professionals, organisation risk manager/s)
• Project team members

Write your answer in the table below.

Stakeholder	Role	Responsibilities

2. For the case study provided above, outline what categories of risk will be focused on for this project (eg. schedule, health & safety, etc)

Write your answer here

3. identify three possible causes that may lead the project described in the case study to run behind schedule and miss a key milestone or due date. For each possible cause identify potential contributing factors.

Write your answer here

4. identify three possible causes that may lead the project described in the case study to run over budget. For each possible cause identify potential contributing factors.

Write your answer here

5. identify two possible causes that may lead the project described in the case study to complete the building fit-out but not to the organisation's standard. For each possible cause, identify potential contributing factors.

Write your answer here