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Regina Collins

Dr. Norbert Elliot

PTC 642

04 April 2009

Risk Analysis

CorpCommCollab Project

Executive Summary

In any undertaking, there is always the potential for risk (events that threaten the success

of the endeavor). Risk is defined as the combination of the probability of an event and the

severity of its consequences. This document details the risks identified for the success of the PTC

642 CorpCommCollab project and, when appropriate, provides plans of action to mitigate these

risks or to deal effectively with their occurrence.

In total, 19 risks were identified for the CorpCommCollab project. Of these 19 risks,

only one was rated to be high risk. Nine were identified as medium risks, and nine were

identified as low risk. Table 1 summarizes these risks.

TABLE 1 - RISK SUMMARY

Risk Level Risk

High Lack of proper recording equipment for podcasts

Medium Students with accents may be difficult to understand in podcast

Medium Scheduling conflicts delay discussions and collaboration

Medium Problems with Drupal

Medium Problems with Camtasia Relay

Medium Lack of coordination with Dr. Elliot for final approval and feedback

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Medium Lack of style sheet, logo, tagline, motto, and other design decisions

Medium Lack of funds to produce media

Medium Difficulty in creating URL

Medium Power outages at NJIT or other service disruptions

Low Dr. Elliot no longer involved in project

Low Problems coordinating with the College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA)

and Master of Science in Professional and Technical Communication (MSPTC)

offices

Low Individual group members no longer involved

Low Problems with MSPTC site

Low Problems with Moodle site or chat room

Low Poor quality of delivered project

Low Security breach within Drupal

Low Possibility of going over budget

Low Coordination problems with NJIT Office of Alumni Relations

Threat Identification

The risks to a project can come from both internal and external sources. In order to

identify all possible risks, a Risk Assessment form was distributed to all students in the PTC 642

seminar.

Threat Categories

The Risk Assessment form asked students to consider risks in each of the categories

listed in Table 2.

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TABLE 2 - RISK CATEGORIES

Human What individuals or organizations could negatively impact the

project?

Operational What factors could cause a disruption in service or a failure in

distribution?

Reputational What threats exist that could harm the reputation of the

CorpCommCollab project or the MSPTC program as a whole?

Procedural What risks could affect the internal systems and controls of the

project?

Project What threats could cause delays or affect the quality of the project?

Financial Are there any financial constraints that could negatively impact the

project?

Technical Upon what technologies does the project depend, and what threats

exist for those technologies?

Natural Could any natural disasters such as weather threaten the project?

Political What governing bodies could negatively impact the project?

Probability and Consequence of Threats

Each student was asked to assign a probability (or likelihood) value and a consequence

(or impact) value to each identified risk factor in the Risk Assessment form. The likelihood of a

threat is the potential of it occurring. Students were asked to assign a value from 1 to 4, with 1

being very unlikely and 4 being very likely.

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The impact of a threat identifies how significant the effects would be if that threat did

indeed occur. Again, students were asked to assign a value from 1 to 4, with 1 being minimal

impact and 4 being critical impact.

Risk Value

Based on the student-assigned likelihood and impact values, each risk was ultimately

assigned a risk value. The scale used for risk values in this report is shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 - RISK VALUES

High Risk Risk value of greater than 50 to 100

Medium Risk Risk value of greater than 10 to 50

Low Risk Risk value of 1 to 10

Table 4 illustrates the method used to calculate risk values. The risk value and

corresponding risk scale enable us to assign a risk level to each identified risk.

TABLE 4 - CALCULATING RISK VALUES

Likelihood of Threat

Impact of Threat

Low (10) Medium (50) High (100)

High (1.0) 10 x 1.0 = 10

(risk value low)

50 x 1.0 = 50

(risk value medium)

100 x 1.0 = 100

(risk value high)

Medium (0.5) 10 x 0.5 = 5

(risk value low)

50 x 0.5 = 25

(risk value medium)

100 x 0.5 = 50

(risk value medium)

Low (0.1) 10 x 0.1 = 1

(risk value low)

50 x 0.1 = 5

(risk value low)

100 x 0.1 = 10

(risk value low)

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Table 5 outlines the risk levels and required actions for each potential threat.

TABLE 5 - RISK LEVELS

Risk Level Necessary Actions

High If a risk is identified as High, the team members should try to alleviate or correct

the risk. Meanwhile, a crisis plan must be created as soon as possible to deal

with this risk should it occur.

Medium If a risk is identified as Medium, the team members should try to alleviate or

correct the risk. A crisis plan should be developed, but only after all high risk

plans have been put in place.

Low If a risk is identified as Low, the team members must decide if corrective action is

required or if the risk is considered “acceptable.”

Threats to CorpCommCollab Project

Table 6 displays the risks identified for the CorpCommCollab project by the students

involved in the seminar. For each identified risk, the table displays the categories affected,

likelihood, impact, and risk value assigned to each threat.

TABLE 6 - CORPCOMMCOLLAB RISKS

Risk Factor Categories

Affected

Likelihood Impact Risk

Value

Lack of proper recording equipment Technical,

Reputational

High High High

Students with accents difficult to understand

in podcast

Human and

Reputational

Medium Medium Medium

Scheduling conflicts delay discussions and

collaboration

Human,

Procedural

and Project

Medium Medium Medium

Problems with Drupal Operational Medium High Medium

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Risk Factor Categories

Affected

Likelihood Impact Risk

Value

and Project

Problems with Camtasia Relay Operational,

Project and

Technical

Medium Medium Medium

Lack of coordination with Dr. Elliot for final

approval and feedback on all stages of

project development

Procedural Medium High Medium

Lack of style sheet, logo, tagline, motto, and

other related aesthetic information

Project Medium High Medium

Lack of funds to produce media Financial Medium Medium Medium

Difficulty in creating URL Technical Medium High Medium

Power outages at NJIT Natural Medium High Medium

Dr. Elliot no longer involved in

CorpCommCollab project

Human Low High Low

Problems coordinating with CSLA and

MSPTC offices

Human,

Procedural

and Political

Low Medium Low

Individual group members no longer

involved

Human Low High Low

Problems with MSPTC site Operational

and Project

Medium Low Low

Problems with Moodle site or chat room Operational

and

Technical

Low High Low

Poor quality of delivered project Reputational Low High Low

Security breach within Drupal Reputational

and

Technical

Low High Low

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Risk Factor Categories

Affected

Likelihood Impact Risk

Value

Possibility of going over budget Financial Low Medium Low

Coordination with NJIT office of Alumni

Relations

Political Low Low Low

Risk Management

The identified risks must now be individually examined to determine what crisis plan

should be put in place to mitigate the threat or to address the risk should it arise. Risks will be

discussed in risk value priority, with the high risks being addressed first.

High Risk

Only one risk factor was identified as high risk. This risk is described in detail in the

following table.

Risk Students may not have proper recording equipment for their podcast.

Nature of risk Technical, Reputational

Stakeholders Individual student, as well as all students in seminar

Potential impact Quality of podcast will be poor.

Plan of action This risk will be partially mitigated by the submission of a preliminary

podcast recording for review. The quality of the recording can be

examined early in the process and suggestions can be made regarding how

to improve the quality, if necessary.

Medium Risk

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Nine of the risks identified for the CorpCommCollab project were identified as medium

risk.

Students With Accents May Be Difficult to Understand

Risk Students with accent may be difficult to understand in their podcasts.

Nature of risk Human, Reputational

Stakeholders Individual student, as well as all students in seminar

Potential impact Ability of listener to understand the podcast may be affected.

Plan of action This risk will be partially mitigated by the submission of a preliminary

podcast recording for review. The student’s speech can be examined early

in the process and suggestions can be made regarding how to improve their

diction and recording, if necessary.

Scheduling Conflicts Among Students

Risk Scheduling conflicts may delay discussions and collaboration among

seminar members.

Nature of risk Human, Procedural, Project

Stakeholders All students in seminar

Potential impact Timeliness or quality of project may suffer.

Plan of action This risk will be partially mitigated by the supervision of Dr. Elliot as

well as the respective team leaders.

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Problems with Drupal

Risk Students may experience problems accessing the Drupal site or

uploading their files to the site.

Nature of risk Operational, Project

Stakeholders Individual student, as well as all students in seminar

Potential impact Information may be missing or incomplete. Files may be corrupted or

include “garbage.” Files may also not meet the standards established by

the group and the site administrators.

Plan of action This risk will be partially mitigated by the supervision of the Drupal site

administrators, as well as the students themselves who will be reviewing

their Drupal submissions to ensure accuracy and completeness. Site

administrators can remove any files that prove to be corrupted until the

student can resubmit a “clean” copy.

Problems with Camtasia Relay

Risk Students may experience difficulties using Camtasia Relay to record

their podcasts.

Nature of risk Operational, Project, Technical

Stakeholders Individual student, as well as all students in seminar

Potential impact Podcast may have poor quality or may be unusable.

Plan of action This risk will be partially mitigated by the submission of a preliminary

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podcast recording for review. This first submission should identify any

problems in time for them to be addressed by the student before the final

podcast submission is due.

Lack of Final Approval

Risk Because all podcasts, scripts and business cases must be approved by

Dr. Elliot prior to their submission on Drupal, timeliness of approvals is

critical to the on-time completion of the project.

Nature of risk Procedural

Stakeholders Dr. Elliot and all students in seminar

Potential impact Deliverables may be delayed if approval and feedback are not received

on time.

Plan of action This risk is dependent on Dr. Elliot’s availability. If a problem arose,

group leaders could make interim decisions on whether or not to submit

files to Drupal awaiting Dr. Elliot’s final approval.

Lack of Aesthetic Designs

Risk The development of a style sheet, logo, tagline, motto and other

aesthetic materials may be delayed.

Nature of risk Project

Stakeholders All students in seminar

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Potential impact If the design materials for the project are delayed, the print materials

will be delayed as well as they are dependent on the aesthetic design

decisions made for the project. Similarly, business case and podcast

script submissions will be delayed if the logo is not developed in a

timely fashion.

Plan of action This risk is dependent on the design decisions made by the Core Values

Group and the timely communication of those decisions to the

Advertising Group. Group leaders can work together if timeline issues

arise to assign priorities to the deliverables so as not to cause significant

delays to the work of both groups.

Lack of Funds to Produce Media

Risk The project may not have sufficient funds to produce all desired print

media.

Nature of risk Financial

Stakeholders All students in seminar

Potential impact There may not be sufficient funds to produce the print media, or the

quality of the print media may suffer if cost-cutting measures must be

enacted.

Plan of action This risk may not impact the project because the current opinion is to

have all print media available online and not in actual print format.

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Difficulty Creating URL

Risk The Drupal website administrators may have difficulties creating a

meaningful URL for the CorpCommCollab site.

Nature of risk Technical

Stakeholders Drupal site administrators, as well as all students in seminar

Potential impact The site may be difficult to “find” online if a meaningful URL is not

available. Timeliness of URL creation is critical to the print media,

which will prominently display the URL.

Plan of action This risk is dependent on the actions of the two Drupal site

administrators with supervision from Dr. Elliot. The group leaders can

serve as liaisons between the individual students and the site

administrators in expressing the need for this deliverable.

Power Outages and Natural Disasters

Risk A power outage or other natural disaster affecting NJIT will cause the

CorpCommCollab project to be unavailable.

Nature of risk Natural

Stakeholders All students in seminar

Potential impact Users seeking to access the site will not be able to do so. They may feel

that the URL is incorrect or that there is some other reason why the site

is not available.

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Plan of action This risk could be mitigated by having an error message appear that the

NJIT servers are currently unavailable. However, if there is a complete

power outage at NJIT, such a message could not be displayed. There

may be backup generators available for certain computer systems within

NJIT, or an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) system could be

purchased for the Drupal server.

Low Risks

Nine of the risks identified for the CorpCommCollab project were identified as low risk.

Loss of Dr. Elliot’s Involvement

Risk Dr. Elliot may choose to no longer be involved in the CorpCommCollab

project.

Nature of risk Human

Stakeholders All students (current and future) in seminar

Potential impact Dr. Elliot is the driving force behind the creation of the

CorpCommCollab project. Without his guidance, and without the work

of the students in his PTC 642 Corporate Communication seminar, the

CorpCommCollab project will stagnate.

Plan of action This risk could be mitigated by enlisting another professor or graduate

student to commit to continuing to build the body of information

contained in the CorpCommCollab wiki.

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Problems Coordinating with CSLA and MSPTC

Risk Certain aspects of the CorpCommCollab project require input, feedback

or approval from the Office of the Dean of the College of Science and

Liberal Arts, as well as the Chairperson and Board of the MSPTC

program.

Nature of risk Human, Procedural, Political

Stakeholders All students in seminar, MSPTC program chair, Dean of CSLA

Potential impact The CorpCommCollab project may not be approved for linkage to the

MSPTC program page or for publication on the internet without

approval from these two governing bodies.

Plan of action This risk will be mitigated by ensuring that these organizations are

involved and made aware of the status of the project at all phases of

development. In this way, issues can be addressed as they arise instead

of at the end of the project.

Loss of Individual Group Members

Risk Due to time constraints or other factors, some members of the

CorpCommCollab group may decrease or completely discontinue their

involvement in the seminar.

Nature of risk Human

Stakeholders All students in seminar

Potential impact The loss of any one student will significantly impact the deliverables for

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this project. Each student plays a critical role in the development of all

materials required to produce a quality project.

Plan of action This risk could be mitigated by ensuring that each student has whatever

support is needed to complete his or her tasks, and that no one student

takes on too much work. If students are unable to complete their

assigned tasks, they should notify their team leader and Dr. Elliot

immediately.

Problems with MSPTC Site

Risk Difficulty soliciting cooperation from the MSPTC website maintainer to

include a link to the CorpCommCollab wiki from the MSPTC

homepage.

Nature of risk Operational, Project

Stakeholders All students in seminar, MSPTC program chair and board

Potential impact While this risk would not significantly impact the usefulness or quality

of the CorpCommCollab project itself, we feel there would be a great

benefit to linking the project to the MSPTC site so that current and

potential students could view the types of cutting-edge projects being

completed in the MSPTC program.

Plan of action This risk could be mitigated by communicating early and often with the

MSPTC website maintainer (Dr. Coppola) to request that a link to the

CorpCommCollab project be included somewhere on the MSPTC

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website.

Problems with Moodle

Risk Moodle is the main communication platform used by the students for

this project.

Nature of risk Operational, Technical

Stakeholders All students in seminar

Potential impact Access to the Moodle site is critical for the success of this project.

Moodle provides a means of communication both with other students

and with Dr. Elliot regarding deliverables, due dates, grading, and so on.

Plan of action This risk is completely dependent on the Moodle site and administrators

at NJIT. If Moodle became unavailable for some period of time, work

could continue using class-wide e-mails, but we would rely on the

Moodle administrators to bring the system back up as quickly as

possible.

Poor Project Quality

Risk The CorpCommCollab project is a showpiece for the NJIT MSPTC

program.

Nature of risk Reputational

Stakeholders All students in seminar, Dr. Elliot, all current and future MSPTC

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students

Potential impact If the quality of the CorpCommCollab project is poor, the reputation of

the MSPTC program will suffer as a result.

Plan of action This risk is being mitigated by Dr. Elliot’s involvement and supervision

of the project. Dr. Elliot is reviewing all business cases and podcasts

prior to their release for public consumption, thus ensuring a high

quality end product.

Security Breach in Drupal

Risk A hacker, angry student, or some other individual could somehow gain

access to the Drupal website and contaminate the contents of the

CorpCommCollab wiki.

Nature of risk Reputational, Technical

Stakeholders All students in seminar, students in Dr. Elliot’s other classes who use

Drupal, and Dr. Elliot

Potential impact Information on the Drupal site could be contaminated or deleted. If it

goes unnoticed for any period of time, this could greatly impact the

reputation of the project and the MSPTC program in general.

Plan of action This risk is being mitigated by having secure usernames and passwords

in order to edit content on the Drupal system. Our site administrators

are ensuring that the system is safe from unauthorized access.

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Going Over Budget

Risk Dr. Elliot’s initial investment in the first CorpComm project

(CorpCommPodcast) is still being used to fund any requirements for the

CorpCommCollab project.

Nature of risk Financial

Stakeholders All students in seminar

Potential impact Print media may not be able to be printed or may have to be printed

using cost-cutting measures that may impact the quality of the final

product.

Plan of action This risk is being mitigated by avoiding unnecessary printing costs by

distributing print media online. Because the Drupal site already existed,

there was no additional cost involved in using it for the

CorpCommCollab wiki.

NJIT Alumni Relations Office

Risk Another method to reach out to our audience (and possibly to future

donors) is through the Alumni magazine, published by the NJIT Alumni

Relations Office.

Nature of risk Political

Stakeholders All students in seminar, MSPTC program in general

Potential impact Without a timely response from the Office of Alumni Relations, we may

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not be able to include an article in the upcoming issue about the

CorpCommCollab project.

Plan of action This risk is being mitigated by Stephanie Robinson, who is contacting

the Alumni office to request that they consider an article about

CorpCommCollab combined with an interview with Dr. Elliot.