Risk Assignment: Boston Big Dig Project Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Part- A.

Risk Register – Quantification and Risk Response Strategy

Risk

Rating Before Risk Response

(H, M, L)

Response

Prevent, Avoid, Mitigate, Transfer or Accept

Schedule Overruns due to the ineffective project management practices.

H

Prevent: Government should provide appropriate working environment and supply of raw material and funds for the timely execution of this project to the contractors i.e. BINFRA and PB. They should also strictly clarify the deadline of the project and impose heavy penalties in case of default because the project involves a high stake from the general public.
Cost Overruns due to the exposure of the project to certain unexpected environmental and technical factors.

H

Mitigate: Government should ask the contractors to use standard material only and ensure transparency in the execution process of the project. It should also try to mitigate the environmental risks through an appropriate contingency planning.
Deadline Issues

L

Avoid: The Project team should set certain milestones and overview them on a periodic basis to avoid any sort of delay in the execution of the project. They should also start the work earlier then required to provide some free time for dealing with any sort of future breakdown.
As the project is directly related to the Public, therefore it can be exposed to a number of Community Concerns.

M

Transfer and Mitigate: Involve the local area government personnel in the planning and execution of the project and inform the public through seminars and public conferences about any significant change in the technical requirements and schedule of the project.
Uncertain Regulatory and political conditions of the country.

L

Avoid: Try to form such an agreement that should contain certain fix terms and conditions, which will never be altered in case of any future change in regulations or political takeover.

Good Risk

Rating

Response – Exploit/ Share/ Accept
Good Risk: The companies can enhance their good will and there is an opportunity to win more contracts from the government of other states as well. High Exploit: The companies should try to utilize all the available resources and complete the project within the due date; so that other prospective clients can trust upon their services and competencies and give them certain new projects.

Risk, Contingency Plan

Risk

Rating after Risk Response

(H, M, L)

Contingency Steps should the risk materialize

Schedule Overruns

M

The government should impose heavy penalties in case of default and revise their terms with the contractors to avoid any future breakdowns.

Cost Overruns

M

The government should specify a list of suppliers to the contractors and impose penalties in case of any violation. To deal with environmental risks, the government should develop a disaster management team that can deal with all the future environmental uncertainties.
Deadline Issues

L

Set up milestones to check the performance of the project team and start the work earlier.
Community Concerns

L

The government should increase awareness among the public through mass media advertisement campaigns and face to face communication measures.
Uncertain Regulatory and political conditions of the country.

M

Should develop a special task force team that can deal with any sort of complexity related to government regulations and other political uncertainties.

Due to the lack of experience, MTA had issued this contract to Parsons Brinckerhoff and Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation. But as a result of the change incorporated by MTA in their management structure in 1999, which was the peak construction phase of the project, a huge communication breakdown occurred between all the parties (Euchner, 2002). Due to this change, it was assumed that both the contractors were no longer in the role of managing that project; rather they were acting as suppliers for supplying highly qualified technical staff to the MTA’s management. Being a government body, MTA was directly exposed to the risk of corruption, which increased the cost and time of the project and as a result the project was completed in 2007 at a cost of $14.5 billion; instead of its expected year of completion which was 1998 and budgeted cost of $2.8 billion. This had also increased conflicts among the three parties, which was only making the situation worse (Hatch, 1999; Euchner, 2002.).

Part- B.

Risk Management Plan

With the help of the above table it has been observed that what sort of risks was faced by the project, Big Dig. In order to manage these risks and.........................

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