Project and Contract Risk Management

Description of Assessment Task and Purpose:

Following the module's project risk management and contractual law related lectures and seminars coupled with your additional study on the subject, you should be familiar with the practice, theory and contemporary research within risk management. You may also have your own varied professional experiences to draw upon in order to help construct a comprehensive evaluation of this complex matter.

In this written assignment (report), you are asked to critically analyse a project, assessing and mitigating its potential inherent risks by utilising project risk management tools and techniques as well as contract law maxims taught within the module.

Consider a project that has been proposed, planned or just recently started and for which you are able to obtain sufficient amount of information/data. First, identify and categorise any potential risks for the project using a range of available analytical tools. After assessing the identified inherent risks in more detail, determine and further elaborate on the most critical ones.How do you think your behavioural characteristics (e.g. risk propensity, perception, attitude) influenced the assessment? Provide mitigation measures for 2-3 critical risks, relating them to the overall risk strategy you would envisage for the project. Finally, recommend how contractual terms and provisions may be utilised to judiciously allocate/mitigate a particular critical risk or some other common risk arising in such class of projects. You should aim to allocate circa 1,000 words to the contract law considerations, with the size of other assignment parts left to your discretion given the emphasis you wish to put.

Your standpoint should be balanced and analysis well-written, generously complemented with suitable references to the relevant, contemporary literature as well as referring to personal experiences, observations and insights where appropriate.

Learning Outcome 1: critically evaluate how project risk can be best managed in accordance with contemporary risk management research and practice and develop a robust risk management plan
Learning Outcome 2: analyse how project complexity and associated cultural aspects can have an impact upon project risk management
Learning Outcome 3: assess risks and recommend effective measures to manage uncertainty and project's exposure to risk
Learning Outcome 4: evaluate procurement strategies, tools and constraints, including sourcing, contractor management and relationship building
Learning Outcome 5: explain key legal concepts, identify risks involved in the negotiation, formation and management of procurement contracts, and formulate strategies for avoiding and resolving contractual disputes

Knowledge & Skills Assessed:

Except the obvious opportunity to assess subject specific knowledge and practical understanding of the key risk and contract management methods and techniques, this assignment also tests the ability to critically evaluate and suggest the required adjustments to established theories.

In terms of emotional intelligence, the assignment should improve self-confidence of students in relation to their ability to use the risk management toolkit in professional life after graduation.

Finally, problem solving, estimationand forecasting are a substantial part of this assignment, requiring students to demonstrate their imagination, creativity and ability to synthesise some new knowledge.