International Space Station Systems Engineering Risk Management - Case Study Example

International Space Station Systems Engineering risk management Introduction The Space Station Company or ISS is one of the most complex systems, both programmatically and technically. The Space Station has to support a wide range of mission and payloads. Extra precautions have been taken on numerous launch packages that are operated and safely assembled in the harsh environment of space. This company is run by various organizations which include Boeing, NASA, prime contractor and other international partners (Young 429). The ISS has many customers that require to be well protected from any danger or anything that might cause harm to them. Some of their customers include Congress, Administration, public, users, and international partners. The international space station risk management office strategies to systematically and proactively manage risks in helping ensure that ISS program is successful. Risk Management Strategy The risk management is meant to identify threats and risks in the program as early as possible so as to counteract them at the right time. When the risks are identified, appropriate mitigation plans are done to reduce the likelihood or the consequences of the risk that may occur. The strategies for managing risks in the ISS program include (Young 429): Incorporated risk management ways into the daily activities to help, identify and manage all the risks and threats. Delegation of the risk-management responsibilities to the lower organizations with the resources to accept or mitigate the risk. Dedication of the risk management program to lead risk management activities to facilitate processes of risk management, and provide analytical tools and support. The support includes Risk Management Processes Training, Probabilistic Risk Assessment and other assistance related to risk management in managing the organization. Provision of necessary funding and the cost analysis in addressing all the potential risks and threats, which includes the integration of the value process in a risk system. The risk management procedures are executed under the following methodology (Ticker 4): 1. The organization has a platform of revisiting the documents and identifying the risks. The team assesses the probability of the likelihood of the risk and score by use of the standardization risk tool. When the assessment is done, the mitigation options are analyzed, and the associated uncertainties and impacts are analyzed. The organization develops the risk management plans and ensures that they are implemented at the right time. Again, the delegation is responsible and mandated to track, manage and mitigate the risks to the lowest level possible. 2. Risk management issues and status are commonly reported to the management control panel or board and the monitoring the activities of risk management of all levels of the organization. Communication throughout the management is enhanced so as to ensure that the inputs and the consequences are always better managed. 3. Integration and the consideration of risk into all major evaluations and decisions made and in the entire cycle. The risk management is a continuous process that is initiated by the ISS risk management panel that develops and implements the risk management tools and processes that entail quantitative and qualitative risk methodologies. These methods are supported by use of integrated user training on the supporting and process infrastructure (Ticker 6). There are several types of the tools and techniques for the risk management that are used in the process. The Risk Management Process The risk management purpose is to identify the early risks and give the appropriate measures to mitigate the potential threats and the risks. The process involves systematic methods that entail identification, analyzing, mitigation, and communication about the risks. The management process promotes the use of the use of the tools and techniques of mitigating the risks and the threats and also in the decision-making. The process requires that all the associated individuals should bring their gotten information on the risks to the board. The risk management process assesses continually all the possible risks that might occur in a system (Nicholas and Nicholas 324). They also determine the measures and the strategies that are needed in mitigating the risks occurring in the organization. The board implements an efficient risk management process that also entails other programs of increasing the mission success and the understanding what is wrong together with enabling the better use of resources in prioritization ways. Risk Data Application The ISS office uses the integrated risk management platform that manages all the risks and inform of all the data about the risks occurring. Each risk and the mitigation practice done are entered into the database for the recording purposes where the severity of the risk is also indicated. The management uses the data obtained in the managing and tracking the risks and in gaining insights into the impacts that are associated with the risk. The database also contains the cost details of all that was incurred in the risk management. The items that are entered into the database are tiered such that the low-level commodities that lack the definition are labeled as Concerns. The more detailed items are marked as the watch assets. The top level issues are characterized by the Risks (Nicholas and Nicholas 324). The data application department facilitates the management of the of the organization’s review of the risks. When the discussion of the risks is done by the management of the organization, they usually record the whether the data agrees with the risk that occurred. In every level of elevation, the organization assigns their score and rank after their consideration while giving the priorities to the more global aspects. The department in mandated to manage the daily occurrence of the risks that are associated with the organization at all levels (Moynihan, Kalra and Batson 5). The group reviews the data every week so as to track all the possible risks the organization is associated with at every time. The managing board generates the appropriate measures that should be taken in eradicating the risks and prevention of the recurrence. The mitigation plans involve the specific tasks that are done to lessen the effect of the consequences reduces the probability of the recurrence of the same risks. After the reduction task is completed, the management is responsible for recording the completion of the work in the database and rescores the risk with consideration of the task’s results. The organizations top level risks are easily identified as the database is always updated as time goes, and the status of each risk is managed well in the system. Many programs of the management trends have the provision of the database for entering data, and that ensures that the data can be easily analyzed, and the new potential risks can be identified. Thus, the program assists in risk management within the company and also helps in preventing the future occurrence or the recurrence of the risk. The organization scrutinizes the metrics for compliance and effectiveness in ISS management of the risk. Risk Advisory Board The top risk board is the Risk Advisory Board. This section assists the program manager in the management of the risks in the ISS risks. The board has representatives from every managing organization, Boeing, contractor and the other sectors. The board reviews the data collected and recorded in the database and to ascertain the top ranked risks in the organization. The ISS program manager evaluates all the risks and assigns all the actions and the resources as appropriate. The mitigation status and plans are reviewed, and appropriate actions and the resources are formulated to ease the process of risk mitigation (National Research Council of the National Academies 10). The tool gives the organization a way of managing the organization from the risk. At this level, the organization can measure the consequence, likelihood, and the magnitude. The risks are ranked with respect to other risks to assist in determining the risk mitigation priorities in a consistent way. The particular risk is recorded in the matrix formulation to provide the visual outlook of the data, and they indicate the relative importance and magnitude. Decision Trees The decision trees are mostly used in the risk management process when structuring the complex decisions that are to be made. They usually identify the appropriate available option that can be used in the risk mitigation. They capture the sequential, logical progression of the events that occurs during the decision-making process. The decision tree helps in fragments the bigger problems and to make avenues of addressing and decomposing the issues into solvable sub-problems. The tool gives the decision maker of an avenue to demonstrate available options in a graphical manner (Nicholas and Nicholas 324). The aspect eases the process and procedures of problem-solving. Probabilistic Risk Assessment This section is a multi-disciplinary process that is employed in the risk management to assess all the ways that are used to find the relative importance in a system. The results obtained in this system are used as an active decision maker and with the support of the operation, design, and an upgrade of the alternative decisions. The process helps in identifying the potential risks and analyzing the existing risk within the organization. The system captures all the possible accident scenarios that can cause undesired consequences referred to as end states. This section has some objectives that they are ought to achieve in order to fare well in the organization (Ticker 7). These goals include examination of the scenarios that can lead to loss of life of a member, catastrophic loss of any station, loss of the pressurized module, and those channels that are requiring evacuation. Schedule and Cost Risk Coordination In the identification and assessment of risks, the organizations use the probabilistic schedule and cost to deal in a more effective way with inherent scheduling and cost in the decisions. The cost threats are usually coordinated in an excellent manner, and the evaluations are done to ascertain every aspect related to the risk occurrence in the company. The cost issues and all the risks associated with the company are tracked and managed in an efficient process (Ticker 8). The approach gives a room for documenting, reviewing, ranking and managing all the risk together with the schedule and the cost impacts of the program. A forced ranking system is typically used to prioritize the threats and the risks that are relative to the importance of the program. The classification facilitates a timely and an organized review of the risks associated with the program. The program assists in making the management decisions and spans a multiple of years that ensures that reserves are allocated in accordance to the multi-year prioritizations of the engineering group with the ISS program office. The agency develops the forced ranking risks with consideration of all technical aspects (National Research Council of the National Academies. 15). This team evaluates all aspects of the threats and risks that are associated with the program including technical, scheduling and cost impacts and development of the prioritization lists. These records comprise all the risks and threats that are associated with the program. The program helps in analyzing the risks and coming up with the right mitigation processes. Conclusion The ISS program has integrated risk management procedures that entail both the qualitative and quantitative in nature that are integrated into the process of management. The tools and process are permeated and seamless to the lowest possible levels so as to realize the practical risk management. The program follows the procedural and continuous risk management method. The risk process evaluates continually all the wrongs that that can result in any risk to the company. The processes involved are devolved to various sectors that evaluate, analyze and mitigate the risks using the right procedures in order to reduce the risks effectively. The mitigation process assesses the risks also it determines the risks that can be managed, by use of the available resources and deal with the risks appropriately. The process incorporates all the facets of the threats and risks that include the schedule, cost, and technical aspects. There are support analysis tools that are used to analyze programmatically, tabulate and represent the decisions that are supposed to be made out of the data that is available. Thus, the risk mitigation in the international space station company is a process entailing many stages, and it mitigates the risks associated with the program. Works Cited Moynihan, Gary P., Gurdish S. Kalra, and Robert G. Batson. Development of a Risk Identification Expert System for the International Space Station Project. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 1.1/2 (2010): 90. Web. National Research Council of the National Academies. NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities. National Academies Press, 2012. Print. Nicholas, John M, and John M Nicholas. Project Management for Business and Engineering. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2008. Print. Ticker, Ron. Engineering Test Beds on the International Space Station. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine 24.8 (2009): 4-8. Web. Young, L. R. The International Space Station at Risk. Science 296.5567 (2012): 429-429. Web. Read More