Project Management Risk Response Planning Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project team identifies an opportunity to finish a critical phase two weeks early by using a new, unproven technology. To capitalize on this, the project manager allocates budget for the top developers to receive specialized training and dedicates them solely to this task, ensuring the opportunity will be realized. Which risk response strategy is being implemented?
- Exploit (Correct answer)
- Enhance
- Share
- Accept
Correct answer: Exploit
The Exploit strategy is used for high-priority opportunities and involves taking aggressive actions to ensure the opportunity is realized. By dedicating the best resources and providing training, the project manager is actively making certain the project can take advantage of the new technology.
Question 2: A project manager for an outdoor festival is concerned about the risk of severe weather. To address this, the manager purchases an insurance policy that will cover financial losses if the event is cancelled due to a storm. This action is an example of which risk response strategy?
- Avoidance
- Mitigation
- Acceptance
- Transfer (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Transfer
The Transfer strategy involves shifting the negative financial impact of a threat to a third party. Purchasing insurance is a classic example, as the financial liability for the risk event (cancellation due to weather) is moved from the project to the insurance company.
Question 3: During risk response planning for a software development project, the team identifies a risk that a third-party API may be unreliable. The team's primary response is to build a monitoring tool to detect API failures quickly. They also identify an alternative API provider and prepare an integration plan in case the primary one fails completely. What is this second plan called?
- A secondary risk plan
- A fallback plan (Correct answer)
- A workaround
- A residual risk plan
Correct answer: A fallback plan
A fallback plan is a predetermined set of actions to be taken if the primary risk response or contingency plan proves to be ineffective. In this case, the monitoring tool is the primary response, and switching to a new provider is the 'Plan B' or fallback plan.
Question 4: A project team determines that a potential risk has a very low probability of occurring and a low impact on the project objectives. The cost to develop any mitigation or avoidance strategy far outweighs the potential damage. The team documents the risk and decides to set aside a small amount of money in the budget to deal with it only if it occurs. This is an example of:
- Active Acceptance (Correct answer)
- Risk Ignorance
- Passive Acceptance
- Risk Avoidance
Correct answer: Active Acceptance
Active Acceptance involves acknowledging a risk and making a deliberate plan to respond if it occurs, which often includes establishing a contingency reserve (of time, money, or resources). Passive acceptance would involve documenting the risk but not setting aside specific reserves.
Question 5: Which of the following scenarios is the BEST example of the 'Avoid' risk response strategy?
- Hiring a specialized subcontractor to handle a high-risk portion of the work.
- Conducting a small-scale pilot study before a full-scale technology rollout.
- Redesigning a product to use a standard, reliable component instead of a new, experimental one. (Correct answer)
- Allocating extra time in the schedule for a task known to have uncertain duration.
Correct answer: Redesigning a product to use a standard, reliable component instead of a new, experimental one.
The Avoid strategy involves changing the project plan to eliminate the threat entirely. By redesigning the product to remove the experimental component, the team has completely eliminated the risks associated with that component's potential failure.
Question 6: A project to develop a new drone delivery system faces a risk of failing to meet strict regulatory flight-path requirements. To reduce the likelihood of this risk, the project team decides to build and test a sophisticated simulation model before conducting any physical flights. This action represents which risk response strategy?
- Transfer
- Mitigate (Correct answer)
- Accept
- Avoid
Correct answer: Mitigate
Mitigation aims to reduce the probability or impact of a risk. By building a simulation, the team is taking proactive steps to identify and fix potential issues, thereby reducing the probability that the final product will fail to meet regulatory requirements. The risk is not eliminated, transferred, or simply accepted.
Project Management Risk Response Planning Questions and Answers
A project team identifies an opportunity to finish a critical phase two weeks early by using a new, unproven technology.
To capitalize on this, the project manager allocates budget for the top developers to receive specialized training and dedicates them solely to this task, ensuring the opportunity will be realized.
Which risk response strategy is being implemented?