Risk item and risk description

You work for a major defense contractor. Your company prepared and submitted a bid for a recent Department of Defense RFP, entitled Automated Mobile Defense System (AMDS). You have been assigned to lead Project X, which will design, develop, test, demonstrate and deploy 10 AMDS units to a location to be determined by the DoD assuming a successful demonstration. This project is expected to take at least 5 years to complete at a cost of $1.5 billion. If you are successful and deliver a quality product on time and within budget, the DoD will order 150 more AMDS units at a price of $10 million per unit. The goal of Project X is to develop a defense system to protect major and strategic cities within the US in the event of a missile attack from a hostile nation. It is to be a redundant system; the last in a series of defensive weapons to be used only in the event that all other defensive systems have failed; when enemy ABMs are approaching the US and only AMDS is left to take them down.

The conceptual design for the AMDS that your company submitted in response to the RFP consists of a mobile housing unit (MHU) containing 20 anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) based on a radically new design; an anti-missile control computer (AMCC) used to automatically target and deploy the ABMs; and a retrofitted detection device (code name: SKYEYE) built on proven, patented radar technology which your company owns. All of these devices: the ABMs, the AMCC and SKYEYE will be completely housed in the MHU, which is planned to be an enhanced18-wheel tractor-trailer. A self-contained power source (for the ABMs) and solar charged batteries for the AMCC and SKYEYE make the entire AMDS portable and completely automatic (no personnel are required to operate any of the systems). However, military personnel on a regular basis will perform routine system monitoring and maintenance, preferably from a remote site. On-site maintenance should only be needed on rare occasions expected to arise from unforeseen events such as earthquake, tornados, ice storms, etc. Should it become necessary, military personnel will move the AMDS to a location known only to them. While it was not included in the design accepted by the DoD, your company would like to be able to provide additional capability with the system: they would like the AMDS to be able to operate while it is being moved.

You are the project manager and oversee the efforts of over a dozen nuclear scientists, engineers, and technology professionals. Many of them are acquainted with the rudiments of project management, but very few know much about project risk management. You'll need to do some education along with managing schedule, budget and scope.

Task

The stakeholders want to see your completed Risk Management Plan. They expect the Project Manager to manage all areas of risk, and to maintain the Plan over the life of the project. You have a contingency reserve of 20%.

Group Portion:

Call upon the members of your Small Group. Using the Small Group Discussion Board, discuss possible risk responses for the risks in this template. Decide as a group whether each risk requires avoidance, mitigation or acceptance. Include as a group how the contingency plans will be executed and, if there are associated costs, how much each contingency will cost as a percent of your contingency reserve.

Individual Portion:

Divide the risks among the members of your group. Individually, develop a risk management plan for each risk, detailed which approach to use and actions to take. Identify how any investment associated with risk management will benefit the Project.

Group Portion:

As a group, come to a consensus on bullet points for an introduction and a summary. The group leader should assemble the entire risk management plan from individual portions and the agreed-upon introductory and summary slides. Please list participating group members on the cover slide.
Submit the presentation to the Small Group Drop Box.

This is a group project in which I am involved however I do not understand how to determine contingency reserves or formulate a risk management plan/deliverabes. I have been assigned the internal risks which I was told have nothing to do with Budget, Schedule, Resource or Quality. They are included on the attached spreadsheet. I am to determine or decide whether each risk requires avoidance, mitigation or acceptance. The spreadsheet contains the combined efforts of the groups' previous risk templates with columns to "Vote" on the three categories and guess as to the percentage of the contingency reserve that will be spent to counter the risk. If I understand this correctly, we can basically go 20% in added cost to get this job done. Now I also understand that this 20% is calculated into the budget, so if we hit the mark, we can still make money.

Then a form needs to be filled out (which is also included) on each risk. I have unfortunately very little understanding on this topic and am VERY LOST and CONFUSED so any guidance would be greatly appreciated! I have put this at the maximum credit points alloted. I determined what I thought would be what would be necessary for the risks (avoidance/mitigation, etc.) however unsure if they are correct and unsure of what the contingency reserves should be.

So what I am needing assistance with is the information on contingency reserves and explanation on completion of the form for each risk.