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Techniques and special applications

Material relating to particular techniques, sectors or applications

  • The colour of hydrogen

    As the planet confronts global warming, hydrogen will become an increasingly important energy source, affecting many sectors in which Broadleaf works. Hydrogen is important because it can be environmentally friendly: it can be produced from renewables and, whether used for combustion or in fuel cells, its primary by-product is water, rather than the carbon dioxide that is generated by burning hydrocarbons. Hydrogen is described in different ways, according to the energy sources and feedstocks used to produce it and the kinds of by-products that are generated. This tutorial summarises the colour descriptions attributed to specific forms of hydrogen production and outlines some of the associated technologies.

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  • Learning lessons and root cause analysis

    Organisations use root cause analysis to learn lessons from both successes and failures, and then to develop plans that will improve performance. This tutorial describes consistent and systematic methods that can be adopted for learning lessons and generating improvements. It describes two methods: fishbone analysis, and cause and effect analysis.

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  • Process and guidewords for organisational HAZOPs

    When organisations change their structures, there is great value in stress-testing the proposed new arrangements to ensure they will work as intended, and will not generate unintended adverse outcomes. Organisational HAZOPs provide one way of doing this. This technical note outlines the process we use for organisational HAZOPs and the guidewords we recommend for such studies.

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  • Process and guidewords for procedural HAZOPs

    When organisations develop new processes or procedures or revise existing ones, there is great value in stress-testing the proposed new arrangements to ensure they will work as intended, and will not generate unintended adverse consequences. Procedural HAZOPs provide one way of doing this. This technical note outlines the process we use for procedural HAZOPs and the guidewords we recommend for such studies.

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  • Schedule uncertainty in linear developments

    Linear developments such as pipe or cable laying, road or rail building, or tunnelling, present challenges not found in other forms of construction. Analysis of the risk to their schedules may require a different approach from that used for the analysis of general construction projects. In some situations, existing schedule modelling tools lack the means to represent the particular features of linear developments. However, these can be addressed, with appropriate expertise, using two modelling tools and exchanging information between them.

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  • Complexity – What’s new?

    Complexity is mentioned in professional discussions from astrophysics to zoology. There is a sense that previous generations led a simpler existence and did not have to deal with it. Understanding whether this is true or not can help to put into perspective present day efforts to handle complexity. A complete history of complexity and efforts to cope with it would be an enormous undertaking but useful insights can be gained from an interesting paper written almost sixty years ago. In language that would not seem out of place today, Charles E. Lindblom described the dilemma of addressing systems with no ordered cause-effect relationships using methods based on systems that do have ordered cause-effect relationships. The challenges he described still exist but there are now ways to address complexity directly rather than try to fight against it or pretend it does not exist.

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  • Sense making and corporate social responsibility

    Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a guiding principle of many organisations. The relatively monolithic nature of corporations and regulators contrasts with the diversity often found within communities affected by a business or public sector activity. Those seeking to satisfy their CSR obligations and aspirations need a means of understanding the complex positions of the communities they affect both at key decision points and as it evolves over time.

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  • Complexity and project risk

    We assume that large and complex projects will be risky. Complexity, scale and risk are bound together in the way we think, feeding off one another. It may be, though, that complex projects are risky not just because of complexity but also because of the way we choose to approach them. The interaction between complexity and project management raises many interesting issues. This is just one of them that has wide ranging implications.

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  • Risk management for projects (notes on prompt questions)

    The prompt associated with these notes is intended to stimulate discussion about key aspects of risk management in your projects. This guide sets out key points of good practice and common pitfalls in each topic in the prompt. Please contact us if you would like a deeper evaluation of your project risk management framework and processes.

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  • Designing good procedures

    Organisations perform functions to achieve their objectives. The functions are usually defined in the form of a set of tasks, each with specific objectives, and the tasks themselves are usually specified in the form of procedures. This technical note outlines the process we recommend for developing good procedures.

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  • Tender price risk

    Tender risk assessment enables the comparison of alternative bids with different prima facie technical and commercial offerings and headline prices. This allows a rational comparison of low-cost offers with limited capability against higher-cost bids with high grade expertise, where both may be acceptable at face value but implementation is expected to play out differently depending on which one is selected.

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  • Enhancing team effectiveness

    It is often necessary to draw a team together and change unhelpful behaviour or re-establish its focus. This paper describes the use of risk management concepts and processes to enhance team effectiveness. It is based on observations over many years of both coincidental and planned improvements in team effectiveness that have been achieved in this way.

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  • Shared services implementation

    While it is a common belief that shared services lead to more efficient business outcomes, assessing the benefits and costs can be challenging. Straightforward risk management, informed by an understanding of the common pitfalls associated with shared services, can improve the chances of success. This white paper sets out some of the factors arising in design, procurement and transition to operation that can affect any shared services project and the realisation of the benefits it should deliver.

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  • Climate change and risk management

    Our climate is changing, and this will affect assets, products and services and the way they perform. This tutorial discusses how the effects of climate change should be included in the risk assessments undertaken by the management team.

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  • Control effectiveness

    This note discusses control effectiveness, a measure of the aggregate effectiveness of all the controls that act on a specific risk.

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  • Estimating limits of liability for contracts

    Supplier liability clauses are included in contracts to protect a customer from unnecessary exposure to financial loss due to a breach of contract provisions by a supplier. This tutorial discusses policy and legal matters, and outlines our approach to setting risk-based liability limits.

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  • Review of methodology for consequence assessment

    Broadleaf was the successful tenderer for an Australian Government research project to compile and review consequence assessment methodologies and prepare a public report. The focus was on models used by other agencies to assess impacts (direct and indirect, including economic, environmental and social) arising from pest and disease incursions or similar hazards. The methodologies used by other national organisations to determine consequences (eg, the Department Environment and Heritage, Productivity Commission, Office Gene Technology Regulator, Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, Food Standards Australia New Zealand) and similar international organisations were examined.

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  • Risk management for major procurements

    The material here formed the basis for a paper presented by Dr Dale Cooper, Director, to the 11th International Federation of Purchasing and Materials Management World Congress, Sydney, 17-19 November 1999.

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