Risk Management Plan

RED BULL STRATOS PROJECT

REDBULL GmbH
Head quarter
Fuschl, Austria

Date Sunday 15 march 2020

Prepared by Humera Suleman
Reg no# 1984169
MPM- 2C
Introduction
The Red Bull Stratos Project is a space diving project that will take place on October 14, 2012
with the help of the Red Bull team and other well-known sponsors (Red Bull Stratos, 2012). It
consists of a 43 year-old Austrian skydiver, Felix Baumgartner, who has choosen to free fall 36
000m over New Mexico, United States, with the purpose of transcending human limits,
delivering valuable data for future space exploration, and marketing for Red Bull projects (Red
Bull Stratos, 2012). This project will break the speed of sound by free fall and bring together
knowledge from individuals involved in aerospace, medicine, engineering, and pressure suit
development, which includes capsule creations and balloon fabrication and the design to
improve the scientific understanding of how the body copes with the extreme conditions near
space.

Project risk management is key to project success and crucial in keeping all stakeholders
satisfied before, during, and after project completion. Good risk management can give the
team the confidence they need to support the project. The Project Management Institute
(PMI) characterizes a project risk as an uncertainty that can have negative or positive effects on
meeting project deliverables (Schwalbe, 2010). The Red Bull Stratos Team will manage the
various risks associated with the project by implementing a risk management plan. This will
outline how risks would be managed would be performed throughout the project lifecycle. The
Red Bull Stratos team’s risk management plan considers the methodology for risk management,
roles and responsibilities, budget and schedule estimates for risk-related activities, and
probability and impact matrices.

This project is considered a high risk project as it has an overall risk score of 75 on a scale from
0 to 100. The project risk score is the average of the risk scores of the most significant risks to
this project. A risk score below 16 is low risk project, a score between 16 and 45 is a medium
risk project and a score above 45 is a high risk project.

Before risk management begins it is imperative that a foundation is established for providing
structured project information, thus, the following project elements were completed and
defined prior to developing this Risk Management Plan:

• Define work scope, schedule, resources, and cost elements

• Develop project WBS/WBS dictionary
• Develop master schedule and detailed schedules
• Estimate project cost and finalize budget
• Identify required and available resources
• Establish performance measurement metrics

• Define minimum and maximum baseline thresholds

• Schedule
• Resources
• Cost

• Baseline reporting requirements

 • Format
• Frequency of distribution
• Distribution list

• Define Risk Management Roles and Responsibilities

• Project Manager chairs the risk assessment meetings
• Project team participates in risk assessment meetings and members serve as
meeting recorder and timekeeper
• Key stakeholders participate in risk assessment meetings
• Project Sponsor may participate in risk assessment meetings

Top Three Risks

The top three high probability and high impact risks to this project are:

External Pressure.
If Felix's pressure suit were to lose pressurization, Felix's body could be subjected to life
threatening risk. Above 63,000 feet (known as the Armstrong Line), due to the ambient
air pressure, water boils at 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C) - the temperature of the
human body. If one's body is exposed to the ambient outside pressure, one's bodily
liquids (particularly saliva, tears, and the liquids wetting the alveoli in the lungs) can boil.

Technical and Gear issues.

Oxygen supply, difficulty with the capsule mechanisms, radio failure, or issues with
other gear all could happen.

Instability and Drogue parachute complications.

The skydivers have to learn to use the resistance of the air to stabilize themselves and
fly. In the thin air, there's less to push off of. Thus, if Felix was to begin spinning, it could
become difficult to regain control due to not having the aerodynamic forces to
counteract the spin. This 'flat spin' could result in loss of consciousness, as well as
damage to Felix's eyes, brain, and cardiovascular system. To guard against this
possibility, the team has developed a drogue parachute to automatically deploy and
stabilize Felix should he become unstable for more than a specified period of time.

Risk Management Approach

This will outline how risks would be managed would be performed throughout the project
lifecycle. The Red Bull Stratos team’s risk management plan considers the methodology for risk
management, roles and responsibilities, budget and schedule estimates for risk-related
activities, and probability and impact matrices.
A methodology describes the steps that will be taken to manage risk. The project manager will
review reviewed data related to other projects with similar associated risks. These projects
included shuttle launches by NASA, which integrated high safety and reputational risks as both
projects were displayed on a global scale. Based on this research, the project team will use
various project management tools and techniques, which includes brainstorming, surveys, and
risk-related checklists to support in the risk management process.

The most likely and highest impact risks were added to the project schedule to ensure that the
assigned risk managers take the necessary steps to implement the mitigation response at the
appropriate time during the schedule.

Roles and responsibilities.

As stated that project managers cannot accomplish everything by themselves. Delegation is
necessary for the success of projects (Haughney, 2014). It is important to identify the roles and
responsibilities in the early stages of the project development. The Project Team will create a
RACI Matrix to help identify these roles. The RACI matrix is a project management tool used for
identifying the roles and responsibilities of specific individuals in a project (Haughney, 2014).
Furthermore, it avoids confusion and demonstrates who is responsible for the task, who is
accountable for the task, who will be consulted, and who will be informed (Haughney, 2014).
When a team member knows what is expected of them, it enables them to complete their work
on time, within budget, and to the appropriate level of quality.

Budget and schedule.

One of the most difficult situations a project manager must face is keeping to timelines and
critical path. The Red Bull Stratos project schedule will be created by the project manager,
which will include subjective estimates on activity length. With the high number of activities,
the accuracy of the project schedule becomes called into question by the project team (Sword
ActiveRisk, 2014). One of the risks that must be considered is that of a domino effect. There is
a possibility of continuous delays in schedule, hindering the time objective. This risk must be
considered in the risk management plan to alert the team members of the possible delay and
ways to mitigate it. As schedule times have the risk of increasing, with these increases comes
higher spend. If insufficient monetary resources are provided to carry out the tasks the project
is doomed to fail. It is important to allocate the appropriate budget with project time segments.

Risk probability and impact.

Every project has inherent risks, though they can differ in magnitude and likelihood. A risk
matrix will be employed to identify and assess each individual risk identified in a risk register.
The matrix itself functions by correlating the probability of the occurrence and the overall
impact on the project in the case of an occurrence, resulting in potential risks being assigned an
overall risk level. The Red Bull Stratos project manager will implement a risk matrix to create
visibility, promote discussion, provide consistency in prioritizing risk, and focus decision makers’
attention on the highest priority risks.
Risk Identification

For this project, risk identification was conducted in the initial project risk assessment meeting.
The project manager will

Expert Judgment
Each of the department teams will conduct either interviews with subject matter
experts by having space laboratory visits, space shuttle design industry surveys and
other technical and medical related comprehensive studies, and peer reviewed reports
to gather data for identification.
All the data gathered will be assessed by team leaders of each team and filtered through
rigorous effort in order to achieve high quality detailed reports.

Data Analysis
A risk assessment meeting will be held with key team members and stakeholders. There
will be a extensive review over stakeholder analysis and a report will be generated
associating risks involved with all the relative stakeholders in this project. The
stakeholder analysis report will be presented and maintained throughout the project
timeline.

Historical Review of Similar Projects

The project team will review the history of similar projects from NASA space shuttle
expeditions in order to determine the most common risks and the strategies used to
mitigate those risks.

Document maintenance
This document will be reviewed quarterly over project meetings and updated as
necessary. When a change is made, the updated revision number, date, author, and
change description must be included on the table included on the cover sheet.

Risk Qualification and Prioritization

In order to determine the severity of the risks identified by the team, a probability and impact
factor was assigned to each risk. This process allowed the project manager to prioritize risks
based upon the effect they may have on the project. The project manager utilized a
probability-impact matrix to facilitate the team in moving each risk to the appropriate place on
the chart.
Risk Matrix

Severity Level Health and Safety Financial Impact Reputation Impact

impact

5 N=10+ >$500k Loss of License

4 N=1-9 or Permanent 100k to $500k National media

Disability coverage

3 Lost Time Incident $50k to $100k Short term local

media
coverage

2 Restricted Work Case $10k to $50k Short term disruption

to
project

1 Medical Aid <$10k Negative public

complaint

Probability Classification

Probability A B C D E
Category
Probability 0.01% 1% 5% 10% 25%
A similar Similar Similar Likely to Likely to
Descriptor event has event has event has occur or has occur
not yet occurred occurred occurred several
occurred in once or several once or times over
industry twice in times in twice over project
industry industry project lifecycle
lifecycle
Risk Monitoring
As risks approach on the project schedule the project manager will ensure that the appropriate
risk manager provides the necessary status updates which include the risk status, identification
of trigger conditions, and the documentation of the results of the risk response.

Risk management process and activities

Risk management activity Risk management task Mitigation Plan:

and ownership description

Risk no 1 The PM will make sure all the
engineers and technical staff
Technical and Gear issues engaged in the design and
Capsule engineer development of capsule are
Jon Wells following the drawings as per
requirement. Any difficulties
in task completion will be
addressed immediately. There
will be task completion report
log of malfunctions generated
on daily basis and prompted
to immediate supervisors and
a copy will be forwarded to
the PM. The PM will organize
a meeting with Tech staff in
Any faults in the findings will
be dealt with great
deliberation among all the
team members onboard. In
case of high risk occurrence
found in any of the mentioned
areas, the team will have to
notify Mr Wells immediately
and an emergency meeting
would be held with all the
leading technicians of the
mission. Technical lead Jon
Wells will have a final
authority on any or all the
decisions made regarding
 the Cheshire Aerospace, technical systems for change
Lancaster each Wednesday at request. The weekly meetings
10 a.m to discuss progress. on Wednesdays will continue
The project engineer will to serve.
update the file stored on
INWIT servers that contains
required modification for
each concerned areas. This
file serves as the
measurement approach, and
update to this file serve as the
trigger point for updating the
WBS.

Key areas to address includes.

1)Capsule and chest pack
development
2) Capsule Ergonomics
3) Life-Support system
4) Electrical and
communication system
5) All the backup systems
Risk no 2
The Parachute and drogue A computer-controlled and
Stability and Drogue device deployed would be of altitude guided parachute
parachute High risk importance enhanced with a drogue
Life support Engineer throughout the project system would be crucial in
Mr. Mike Todd development. The design and order to increase safety. All
mechanism of parachute is the technicians working under
carefully monitored and any Lead engineer will have to
discrepancies noted while report in the weekly meetings.
testing would be prompted to The technical team lead will
the Support engineering lead make sure to report to PM in
Mr Mike Todd as needed. The
case of high risk probability
Lead engineer Mr. Mike will
found and present report in
report on the INWIT servers
the weekly meetings on
and present the report to PM
in the weekly risk assessment Wednesday.
meetings on Wednesdays at
10:00 a.m. This file serves as
the measurement approach,
and update to this file serve
as the trigger point for
updating the WBS.
Risk Register

The Risk Register for this project is a log of all identified risks, their probability and impact to
the project, the category they belong to, mitigation strategy, and when the risk will occur. The
register was created through the initial project risk management meeting led by the project
manager. During this meeting, the project team identified and categorized each risk.
Additionally, the team assigned each risk a score based on the probability of it occurring and
the impact it could potentially have. The Risk Register also contains the mitigation strategy for
each risk as well as when the risk is likely to occur.

The Risk Register will be maintained as an appendix to this Risk Management Plan.

Sponsor Acceptance

Approved by the Project Sponsor:

___________________________________________ Date:____________________
REDBULL GmbH