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Essay on Jpl Case Analysis

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Space exploration is as close to pure risk as any of us can conceive. A rocket blows upon launch or it doesn’t. A space craft reaches its destination planet or it doesn’t. The craft lands safely on the planet surface or it doesn’t. We can easily envision these risks, and this makes the process of managing them relatively transparent. Even better, the risk management jargon needed to understand the risk management process is minimal. Mostly, this case requires a thorough reading and some deep thinking. What better way to introduce good risk management than with such a transparent example.
Should Gentry Lee delay or go forward with the Mars Biological Explorer (MBE) mission? This is, of course, the over-riding question for this case …show more content…

b. Evaluate and choose. How are the risks evaluated and the key risks selected?
c. Implement. Effective risk management allocates the greatest resources towards mitigating the most critical risks. How does Lee’s program accomplish this? Absent such a clearly defined allocation process, what might go wrong with a resource allocation process?
d. Monitor. Risk management is an ongoing process. Risks must be constantly monitored to ensure that mitigation strategies are working and emerging risks identified and communicated throughout to MBE Mission structure. What features of Lee’s program did this?
5. How does JPL balance the costs of risk with the costs of mitigating those risks? How does it balance the conflicting needs for control and creativity? How has it fostered the flow of information through the project teams?
6. Risk appetite and risk tolerance are two often bandied about but poorly defined terms in risk management. I recently came across the following definitions that I really like. Risk appetite is the total amount of risk a business is prepared to tolerate in its business, a reflection of the business’ capacity to absorb risk, e.g., the amount you can lose at casinos over an entire year. Risk tolerance drills down one level into a company’s operations to reflect the risk of a particular business unit, e.g., the amount you are willing to lose during one day at a casino. Given these definitions, what is JPL’s

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