RSK 80006 Risk Management System Report

1. Vulnerability Assessment

Apply the Vulnerability Assessment technique to a project of interest to you. Ideally one associated with your work but failing that choose a project with publically available information, for example, those described by the federal government for major infrastructure projects2 or the PTV3.

In doing so:

• clearly document the project’s critical success outcomes and the reason/s why these were selected
• document the threats and the method of selection of these threats
• determine the critical vulnerabilities

2. Precautionary Analysis

Using the Vulnerability Assessment undertaken in the above stage, develop precautionary recommendations for the identified vulnerabilities. You may use a technique described in the lecture presentation or one sourced from elsewhere. The purpose is to demonstrate that all reasonably practical precautions are in place based on the balance of the significance of the risk vs the effort required to reduce it.

The final outcome could be a project risk profile, and ranked investment action list.

Assessment of Group Project: Project Due Diligence Case-study 

The written report of your group’s Project Due Diligence Case-study is to comprise circa 2000 words plus supporting information/ diagrams as required.

Solution

Introduction 

In this report, a discussion regarding the risks or vulnerabilities related to a project is going to be analysed, and the preventive measures that can be used in order to manage the vulnerabilities are also going to be highlighted by considering the project management methods applied in a construction project. Melbourne Metro Tunnel in Australia is the project that has been chosen here. As per MBA Assignment Expert, The Melbourne Metro Tunnel project can be regarded as one of the most effective construction projects that are going on in Australia. It involves a 9km long tunnel within Melbourne, and it is a long-term project; and it is being expected that the project will be completed by 2025. In the case of complex and long-term projects, the chances of facing vulnerabilities are high, and that is why vulnerability analysis is highly important here. In the following section, the vulnerability analysis is going to be done, and the critical success factors of the project are also going to be found. 

Project’s critical success outcomes 

If the project would be able to meet the following outcomes, then it would be possible to state that the project has been successful. 

Accomplishment on time 

If the project would be able to be accomplished in the expected time, then it would be possible to conclude that the project has been successful. As per the information shared by www.dtf.vic.gov.au(2022), the project has been started in 2018, and it is expected that the project will be finished by 2025. Hence, the overall accomplishment of the project by 2025 can be regarded as the critical success outcome here. 

Budget maintenance 

The approved budget for Melbourne Metro Tunnel is $12.58 billion (www.audit.vic.gov.au, 2022). Hence, it can be stated that if the project is completed within the budget, then it would be possible to conclude that the project has been successful, and it means that the accomplishment of the project within the previously set budget can be regarded as the critical success factor. 

No or low number of service-related error 

The project is about the development of the metro tunnel. Any issue related to the servicing process can cause considerable accidents. Hence, the servicing process in the project has to be effective. After the accomplishment of the project, the project outcomes have to be monitored for at least three years, and if it is possible to find out that the issues rates are low, it can be stated that the project has been done in an effective manner, and it can also be regarded as a critical and the most important success outcome to be considered here. 

However, in order to achieve the outcomes, the possible risks are required to be mitigated at the initial stage, and here the significance of the vulnerability assessment is found to be considerable. In the following section, the vulnerabilities and the vulnerability management processes are going to be discussed. 

Threats Related To The Project 

Budget issues 

The main issue in the budget is one of the main threats to the Melbourne metro tunnel. The project has a forecast of approximately around $364 million across stations and tunnels. The project needs more money from the Victorian Government after draining almost most of the risk contingency funds. The approved budget of the project is roughly around $12.58 billion, and the completion time is in the year 2025 (Palin et al.,2021). There are a lot of financial issues, like exhaustion of funds in meeting the deadlines, which is a huge source of concern. RPV advised the Victorian government to review the budget of the estimated project from the bottom and to compute the cash that has been accepted by the government. The taxpayer bill for the tunnel has also increased to almost around $12.58 billion from around $12.38 billion in the May budget. The project is facing some of predominant issues like costs, challenges and deadlines issues. More failures in deadlines will result in more burden on the budget that is allocated for the project. 

Time issues  

Time issues are one of the most important challenges that are associated with the project. According to the Auditor's report, it is observed that the key tunnel and station construction phase was running approximately a $364 million surplus over budget. The delay in time is due to the pandemic-related delays and issues in supply chain distribution. Rail Projects Victoria needs to properly manage the emerging risks to stay within a proper revised budget of approximately around $12.58 billion and to fulfil the deadline, which is 2024 September as the main opening date. Due to fund exhaustion, there is a delay in project delivery which makes the project miss the deadline. Rail Projects Victoria has approximately spent around $727 million of the project's  $740 million risk contingency funding after the pandemic. Due to Covid 19, a pandemic and a shortage of funds caused a delay of the project by almost around 52 days. The delay in the project caused the government to infuse more funds as the deadline was missed multiple times. Time issues caused a detrimental impact on the project.

Improper project planning  

Lack of proper planning is one of the major threats to the Melbourne Metro Tunnel Project. Failure to plan results in the project witnessing unpredicted problems and risks. It leads to wastage of time which results in solving the challenges that the project faces. The project needs to be properly planned, and the funds will be mainly used in solving the problems that arise from the project due to lack of planning. Improper planning will lead to wastage of resources like funds wastage, poor allocation of resources like more staff, and the budget will have a detrimental impact on the project (Palin et al.,2021). The funds of the project are used to form solutions to the issues that arise due to a lack of planning. Therefore decision making activities of the stakeholders are an integral aspect of the project, which will help in solving the problems like shortage of funds and time issues to a large extent. Proper project planning will contribute to the success of the project.  

Communication gap among project members  

Lack of proper communication among all team members develops an unhealthy competition between all employees. Improper body language creates a communication gap among all the employees working on Melbourne Metro Tunnel Project. Lack of communication causes a lot of mistakes in the project, which results in the loss of deadlines. Due to the loss of deadlines, there arise issues like business losses and exhaustion of funds. More infusion of funds causes financial losses in the project, and it is borne by the government (Palin et al.,2021). The unhealthy communication is detrimental for the employees as it contributes to losses to the project. Poor communication has high scale implications for the project costs, schedule and service quality which in turn proves to be not fruitful for the success of the project. Due to the mistakes by the project members, the project escalated to a huge loss of around $364 million, which caused high losses. The loss is incurred by the government. Therefore it is important to have proper communication among all the project members, which will help the project in the long run.  

Here, the vulnerability assessment has been done by using the HVA matrix. It is regarded as the highest value assessment matrix. The scale that is going to be used here is 0 - 3. Here, the scale is being addressed. 

Cant Happen 

1-  Probability is low

2- Moderate probability 

3- Highest probability 

Here. The vulnerability assessment has been done by using the highest value assessment matrix. It means that highest value-related vulnerability has been found out here. By considering the assessment, it can be stated that the highest value-related vulnerability in this regard is about budget issues and the communication gap as both of  these vulnerabilities have the core of 7. These vulnerabilities have the highest probability to impact different aspects of the project. On the other hand, the vulnerability scores of time and project plan-related issues is also considerable. The vulnerability score of these risks is 6. It means that the vulnerabilities can have considerable impact on different aspects of the project that include finance, project stakeholders and the overall setting of the project. However, as the vulnerability score of these factors is lower, other two vulnerabilities that have the highest probability to impact different aspects of the project have to be managed on a priority basis. 

Vulnerability assessment method that has been used here 

HVA or Highest Impact analysis is the vulnerability assessment method that has been used here. Qualitative data related to the project have been gone through in order to get adequate data for the project, and it has helped the investigator in regard to the process of finding out the complexity of the project and at the time when the complexity has been understood, the project-related threats have been found.  HVA consists of risk probability and risk impact (Bonardo et al., 2018). The highest value analysis is of huge help to the Meṭro Rail Tunnel Construction project in Melbourne. It is highly dependent mainly upon the perceptions of the project and according to the budget of the project. The main perception of the Australian Construction Project has associated with risks likelihood  in the project and attempts to assess the overall impact of the project on the ability of project stakeholders, financial outlook and different other factors.,  

Precautionary Analysis

Precautionary recommendations 

Developing proper commitment with investors 

A healthy and strong relationship with project investors needs to be made to make the project Melbourne Metro Tunnel Rail Budget highly successful (west, 2022). The prime investor of the project is Equitix. A verbal commitment is of the most important aspect that is to be made with the investors prior to starting the project. For completion of the meeting, it is a responsibility to ask the investor about their interest in the project. A follow up must be there to update the status of the project (Rahi et al.,2021). The Metro Tunnel project consists of a proper robust appraisal of detailed project costs and the benefits. A lot of foreign investment, like the investment by Chinese companies, is associated with the project. A written commitment must be made to the investors to avoid cost related problems. 

Being clear about the project’s budget 

The most important recommendation that is to be made for the project is to be properly clear on the project budget. Proper trust must be made among all the investors according to the budget of the project. It provides a clear path that eventually leads to more proper project estimates. The approved budget of the project is approximately around $12.58 billion. A proper fixed budget for the project will help all investors to make decisions and budget allocation according to the infrastructure investment for Victoria (Marks, 2019). The government announced the project in the year 2018, and the deadline of the project is approximately in the year 2025. Proper transparency needs to be present in fixing the budget of the project, and according to it, accurate decisions need to be taken, which is an integral role in the success of the project. Accurate budget related constraints that railways may encounter, like the dearth of budget in a boring of tunnels which can easily hamper the project, need to be planned to avoid such types of issues. 

Developing a proper project plan and updating it accordingly based on the requirements of the project

A proper project plan needs to be updated according to the requirements of the project, which will help in removing the bottlenecks of the project. A proper project plan will help in avoiding large obstacles like geological challenges and construction issues which results in the delays of the project. The project implemented plans like the implementation of tunnel boring machines for the tunneling process (Calgaro et al.,2019). According to the current requirement of the project, the plan needs to be modified, thus helping in completing the project within the due course of time. The accurate plan and decisions of the stakeholders must be discussed in making accurate planning of the construction phase of the tunnels of the project.  

Using proper communication methods among project stakeholders 

It is highly recommended to use proper and smooth communication among stakeholders like project managers and the employees of the project (Marks, 2019). Proper communication helps in flawless work, and it will help in reducing the errors in the project, which is highly recommended. Efficient and smooth communication helps the project to be completed according to the deadlines associated with the project.  

Conclusion 

It is to be concluded that project planning plays a predominant role in determining the success of the project. Efficient communication and smart planning are integral elements for important projects like the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel project, which needs to be done according to the deadline provided for the project. Proper time frame and budget allocation must be done to reduce the losses of the project and complete the project within the deadline provided. A proper risk management approach needs to be taken to assess various technical and environmental factors that are associated with the project. Decision-making activities must be taken to reduce the challenges which are there in the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel Project.   

References

Bonardo, D., Casacci, S., Pareto, A., & Terribili, M. D. (2018). Classifying households by socio-economic vulnerability: an application to an Italian municipality. Rivista Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, 72(3).

Calgaro, E., Craig, N., Craig, L., Dominey-Howes, D., & Allen, J. (2021). Silent no more: Identifying and breaking through the barriers that d/Deaf people face in responding to hazards and disasters. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 57, 102156.

Marks, D. (2019). Water access and resilience to climate-induced droughts in the Thai secondary city of Khon Kaen: Unequal and unjust vulnerability. In Urban climate resilience in Southeast Asia (pp. 41-62). Springer, Cham.

Palin, E. J., Stipanovic Oslakovic, I., Gavin, K., & Quinn, A. (2021). Implications of climate change for railway infrastructure. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 12(5), e728, 125-128

Rahi, K., Bourgault, M., & Preece, C. (2021). Risk and vulnerability management, project agility and resilience: a comparative analysis. International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, 9(4), 5-21.
west, 2022. Redirect Notice. [online] Google.com. Available at: [Accessed 26 September 2022].

Www.audit.vic.gov.au, 2022. Melbourne Metro Tunnel project Phase 2: Main works | Victorian Auditor-General's Office. [online] Victorian Auditor-General's Office. Available at: [Accessed 26 September 2022].

Www.dtf.vic.gov.au, 2022. Metro Tunnel Project. [online] Department of Treasury and Finance Victoria. Available at: [Accessed 26 September 2022].