Altex Corporation
Week 4 Assignment: Altex Corporation
David C. Webster
BUS 697: Project Management Strategy
Professor: Dr. Jaclyn Krause
July 22, 2013
Risk is inherent in any project today, and project managers need to constantly assess risks and continually develop contingency plans to address them. In project management risk management plans are an essential part of project planning, and can often time occur well into the execution phase of a project. In the case of Altex Corporation the project manager is faced with the decision to develop a risk management plan on his own, or not at all. In this paper we will explore and summarize the case surrounding Altex Corporation and answer a few questions regarding a risk management plan, which are: Why was a risk management plan considered unnecessary?, Should risk management planning be performed in the proposal stage or after contract award, assuming that it must be done?, Does the customer have the right to expect the contractor to perform risk analysis and develop a risk management plan if it is not called out as part of the contractual statement of work?, Would Altex have been more interested in developing a risk management plan if the project were funded entirely from within?, How might the Army have responded if they were presented with a risk management plan early during the R&D activities?, Can risk management planning be justified on almost all programs and projects?.
Altex Corporation, mentioned above, is an advanced arms research and development company from the early days of the cold war. They have been awarded and R&D contract by the US Army for their Advanced Tactical Missile Program (ATMP). This two year multimillion dollar project specifies in the contract that Altex submit their formal project plan, which during this time did not require a risk management plan. However, a meeting was held between the Altex project sponsor and the project manager of R&D to discuss assessing risks associated with the
David C. Webster
BUS 697: Project Management Strategy
Professor: Dr. Jaclyn Krause
July 22, 2013
Risk is inherent in any project today, and project managers need to constantly assess risks and continually develop contingency plans to address them. In project management risk management plans are an essential part of project planning, and can often time occur well into the execution phase of a project. In the case of Altex Corporation the project manager is faced with the decision to develop a risk management plan on his own, or not at all. In this paper we will explore and summarize the case surrounding Altex Corporation and answer a few questions regarding a risk management plan, which are: Why was a risk management plan considered unnecessary?, Should risk management planning be performed in the proposal stage or after contract award, assuming that it must be done?, Does the customer have the right to expect the contractor to perform risk analysis and develop a risk management plan if it is not called out as part of the contractual statement of work?, Would Altex have been more interested in developing a risk management plan if the project were funded entirely from within?, How might the Army have responded if they were presented with a risk management plan early during the R&D activities?, Can risk management planning be justified on almost all programs and projects?.
Altex Corporation, mentioned above, is an advanced arms research and development company from the early days of the cold war. They have been awarded and R&D contract by the US Army for their Advanced Tactical Missile Program (ATMP). This two year multimillion dollar project specifies in the contract that Altex submit their formal project plan, which during this time did not require a risk management plan. However, a meeting was held between the Altex project sponsor and the project manager of R&D to discuss assessing risks associated with the
References: Kerzner, H. (2005). Using the Project Management Maturity Model: Strategic planning for project management (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.