Executive Summary The project that I was involved in was the Risk Analysis of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. I began this in February 2014 and my project supervisor was Dr. Seth, professor of project management, data and decision making, operations Research, operations management and supply chain management, total quality management and Six Sigma. My main objective was to make a risk analysis of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster occurred in 1986. My chosen focus area was the risk analysis process of the space shuttle and I was able to understand the risk potential. It was a great learning experience and taught me, on the whole, majority of the aspects of risk analysis. Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... …show more content…
What is the risk? First we have to understand the risk management process. We can define the risk as the possibility that an event will occur, which will impact an organization’s achievement of objectives. We can find different forms of risk in an organization. But before that every kind of organization should use a risk assessment management approach in order to manage and control potential risks or situations. One of the important point in risk management is to ensure that each risk is well identified and know which impact the risk will have on the organization. We also have to study the likelihood (the probability that the risk will occur or not). We have to know the impact of the risk. For example a potential risk with a very low impact will not be a priority for the organization. Therefore, the two important things we have to know about risk is the impact and the probability of each risk when you want to make an effective risk management program. The risk management …show more content…
We can identify several risk categories in risk management process: Project management risks, external risks, technical risks, organizational risks, compliance risks and the last one financial risks. The second step in risk management process is to determine the risk likelihood level. Generally there are three different likelihood level in risk management. The first one is “high likelihood level”, then “medium likelihood level” and the last “low likelihood level”. The third step in risk management process consist in identify the risks impact and therefore to measure the impact that the risk could have on the organization. Is important to understand that not all risks will have the same impact. Impact Definition High High impact risks may result in the highcostly loss of assets; risks thatsignificantly violate, harm, or impede operations; or risks that cause humandeath or serious injury. Medium Medium impact risks may result in the costly loss of assets; risks that violate, harm, or impede operations; or risks that cause human injury. Low Low impact risks may result in the loss of some assets or may noticeably affect operations. Risk Impact levels: from NIST's Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems Risk
NASA has faced many tragedies during their time; but one can question if two of the tragedies were preventable by changing some critical decisions made by the organization. The investigation board looking at the decisions made for the space shuttle tragedies of the Columbia and Challenger noted that the “loss resulted as much from organizational as from technical failures” (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 191). The two space shuttle tragedies were about twenty years apart, they both had technical failures but politics also played a factor in to these two tragedies.
Lack of proper risk management process: NASA was using a simple risk classification system and the methods used were only qualitative. There was a lack of proper technical and quantitative risk management methods that could have helped them identify the risks and eliminate them.
In the mid-1980’s, the shuttle space program was the focus of the political media since it had failed to deliver on its exp...
It’s very hard to say what steps, if any, could have been taken to prevent the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster from occurring. When mankind continues to “push the envelope” in the interest of bettering humanity, there will always be risks. In the manned spaceflight business, we have always had to live with trade-offs. All programs do not carry equal risk nor do they offer the same benefits. The acceptable risk for a given program or operation should be worth the potential benefits to be gained. The goal should be a management system that puts safety first, but not safety at any price. As of Sept 7th, 2003, NASA has ordered extensive factory inspections of wing panels between flights that could add as much as three months to the time it takes to prepare a space shuttle orbiter for launch. NASA does all it can to safely bring its astronauts back to earth, but as stated earlier, risks are expected.
What are personal, property, and liability risks? What are examples of personal, property, and liability
Before we look at the images of managing change that were present in the NASA case study let us review a few of the key events in this case study. The case study for this assignment looks at Challenger and Columbia NASA space shuttle disasters and the commission findings on the disasters/recommendations. Now with a short review of the case study what image(s) of change are present in the case study? From the case study the changes introduced are images of managing. These changes are both management of control and shaping. As NASA recovered from the 1986 Challenger disaster, it used the classic Fayol characterization of management such as planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling to correct from the top-down the issues that had caused the Challenger disaster (Palmer Dunford, Akin, pg.24, 2009). NASA approached the changes that need to be enacted as a result of the Challenger and also the Columbia disasters from the change image of a director. NASA ...
A risk is any factor that may potentially interfere with a successful completion of a project by having a negative impact to scope, cost, quality, or timeline/ schedule. A risk is not an issue – an issue has already occurred; a risk is the possibility that an issue might occur. By recognizing project risks, or potential issues, the Project Manager, or designee can attempt to avoid them through proper actions.
Impact – the impact the risk will have on the project if the risk occurs. (Impact is rated as: 1= Marginal, 2= Critical, 3= Catastrophic)
Although the design flaws that contributed to the Challenger and Columbia accidents were different, the accidents themselves were similar. The CAIB during the investigation of the root causes of the accidents, identified contributing organizational problems that played a factored in both cases. NASA had received early warnings of safety issues, however, they failed to take them seriously and resolve them. “What we find out from [a] comparison between Columbia and Challenger is that NASA as an organization did not learn from its previous mistakes and it did not properly address all of the factors that the presidential commission identified.” - Dr. Diane Vaughan.
These risks will have material effect on the organisation 's ability to sustain its business and operational goals and objectives.
Operational risks are risks that may occur in the day to day activities, which may involve the process, systems, or people. Strategic risks are those risks involved with strategy. Positioning ones’ company with the right alliances and competing with fare prices will help affect future operational decisions. Compliance risks involve the many legislations and regulations a company must follow. The results could lead to high penalties and a company’s reputation could take a hit. Lastly, financial risks are always being monitored because oil, fuel, and currency rates are constantly fluctuating. By monitoring the fluctuating rates determines fare cost and balancing of the budget. “Like in any other industry, the risk exposure quantifies the amount of loss that might occur from any particular activity” (Genovese,
As has been discussed before, risk identification plays an important part in the risk such as unique, subjective, complex and uncertainly. There are no two identical leaves in the world; similar, there are no two exactly the same risk either. Hence the best risk manger could not identify risk completely. Besides, risk identification assessment is done by risk analysts. As the different level of risk management knowledge, practical experience and other aspects between individuals, the result of risk identification may be difference. Furthermore, the process of identifying risk is still risky. Once risks have been identified, corporations have to take actions on limiting risky actions to reduce the frequency and severity of risky. They have to think about any lost profit from limiting distribution of risky action. So reducing risk identification risk is one of assessments in the risk
Risk mitigation is also the process of controlling actions, which are identified, and selecting the suitable ones to reduce risk according to project objectives (Pa, 2015). Risk mitigation is important in IT organizations in so many ways. According to Ahdieh, Hashemitaba, Ow (2012), mitigation of risk provides a mechanism for managers to handle risk effectively by providing the step wise execution of the risk handling (as cited in Pa, 2015, pg. 49). Some risks, once identified, can readily be eliminated or reduced. However, most risks are much more difficult to mitigate, particularly high-impact, low-probability risks. Therefore, risk mitigation and control need to be long-term efforts by IT project managers throughout the project lifecycle. There are three types of risk mitigation strategies that hold unique to Business Continuity and Disaster
Both of these types of risk can be avoided when you correctly evaluate your risk guidelines and determine the maximum amount of risk that you are willing to handle.
Risk Management allows us to identify the problems which are unknown during the start of the project but may occurs later. Implementing an efficient risk management plan will ensure the better outcome of the project in terms of cost and time.