ENG8103 Management of Technological Risk
Assignment 2
Description Marks out of Weight (%) Due date
Assignment 2 500 50 12 October 2015
1. Answer all questions, and ensure that your answers have the coverage, and are in the format, requested.
2. Present your own ideas.
3. Your answers should be properly referenced and reflect that you have undertaken research outside the study material.
4. It is expected that your answers will be produced using electronic word processing. Use Microsoft Word for written answers. Any numerical items should use an electronic spreadsheet, in which all steps in any calculation should be clearly explained.
5. Assignments will be submitted electronically.
6. There must be a turnitin result for your answer. Otherwise it will not be accepted. turnitin is the plagiarism detection service used by USQ to examine student submissions as they are uploaded to the study desk. If the system does not successfully generate a turnitin result, student should try a different file format or contact the course examiner.
7. Please note that if plagiarism or cheating is detected in this assignment it will result in no marks for the assignment. Students should ensure they clearly understand the meaning of plagiarism and cheating. In particular, students should understand that while they may collaborate with other students on the conceptual ideas in their assignments, the final written report submitted by each student must be unique, and must not contain the written material of (a) any other student in the course, or (b) by any other person without due acknowledgement.
For further information, see the University’s Academic Integrity Policy on http://policy.usq.edu.au/documents/13752PL.
Question 1 (100 marks)
“It is impossible to be a good risk manager without a thorough understanding of probability theory.”
Consider this statement, and discuss, in 1000 words or less, why you support it or disagree with it, or whether you take a position between these two opposing points of view.
Include a list of any references you have consulted (including text materials).
Comments
There is no right or wrong answer to this question.
In answering it, you should:
• State your point of view
• Develop arguments supporting and opposing your point of view.
• Draw a conclusion, showing how you have used your arguments to do so.
You should look at references outside the course material, using both on-line and print resources. Online resources include both the Internet and library on-line material. For example, the University of Southern Queens land subscribes to a number of on-line databases, which contain abstracts (and sometimes full text) of many current journals.
Direct quotes from external sources should be limited to no more than 10% of your discussion, be enclosed in inverted commas, and properly referenced. It is more important that you use the input from the various reference sources and put it in your own words (while still acknowledging it) to support your arguments.
Question 2 (400 marks)
Overview
Question 2 allows students to demonstrate their understanding of risk management principles and their application to real-world situations. This assessment also provides the opportunity to demonstrate written communication skills.
There are two parts to this assessment:
1. Written report
2. Written communication and presentation
Marking
The written report and presentation marked against criteria covering the various task requirements, presentation, referencing etc. A copy of the marking sheets will be made available on the study desk for students to reference.
The following table provides a break-down of the marks between the two elements of this assessment. This is an important part of the learning process and should be given serious attention.
Assessment elements Marks
Written report 320
Written communication and presentation 80
Scenario
Your task is to develop a risk management proposal for a specific industry. The industry can be one that you are currently working for or an industry of your interest. The industry can produce products, provide a service, be a utility company, a government authority, construction/civil, IT, an educational institution, basically any company or industry in which you have a specific interest in or work for.
As an employee of the company and in a supervisory role you have been asked to provide a
‘proposal’ for a Risk Management Plan covering a new product, service and/or project. The proposal is to be presented to the Company Executives, at their monthly meeting on 13 October 2015.
Requirements
Written report
You are required to develop a report containing:
1. A profile of the Company / Industry selected for this task. The profile should state the company / industry, what they actually do, such as products or services. This section of the report should be titled The Company Profile and be a maximum of 2 pages.
2. A brief business case addressing the following:
• The feasibility of a risk study (brief summary of major reasons for the proposal)
• Terms of reference for the proposal (what must be carried out by the risk management team. It should discuss the background and specifies the scope of the activities, states the main motives for the proposal and the questions asked. It sums up available knowledge and outlines evaluation methods and the distribution of work, schedule and the responsibilities among the people participating in a process. In brief statements). Keep in mind this is a presentation by you to the company executives
• Project team (who should be members of the working risk management team specific for your industry).
3. The risk/s specifically related to your company (or industry) and its products and/or services is anything that is likely to adversely affect the company’s objectives (such as specification, requirements, benefits, schedules, budgets, deliverables) just to give you a few examples (Remember your list should be representative of your industry).
4. An assessment of each risk's likelihood and consequence in terms of:
• Low
• Medium
• High
• Very high;
and a risk ranking based on a semi-quantitative approach.
5. Assigned priorities for the risks (risk evaluation). How you present this is how you will convince the executives of the company that your Risk Management Proposal should be approved.
6. A description of your proposed risk management process including the following areas:
• The steps you plan on taking in your risk management plan (what you and the team will do)
• Any rules and responsibilities required to carry out the proposal such as how to identify, how to do the review of each risk, and how to assign risk actions for risk minimisation.
7. A list of each of the risk management documents that you will develop as part of the process. You must explain the purpose and content of each document.
As part your assignment you must list any resources that were used in formulating your proposal
(appropriately referenced). As you are developing the proposal for the executive team of the company, the maximum pages for the proposal is TEN (approximately 4000 words), it is important to present your proposal in a concise, easy to follow, well organized format. There is no specific template to how you develop the proposal as it will vary depending on the industry you have chosen.
Your document is to comply with the requirements of AS/NZS 31000:2009 Risk Management – Principles and guidelines.
Submission
The assessment must be submitted via the corresponding link on the course study desk. Hard copies will not be accepted.
Written report – contents
The written report shall contain the following documents:
• A title page for the report. The title page should contain your name, student number, course code, assignment title, word count etc.
• A copy of the report. The report must contain page numb