Advances in project risk management

Abstract

Managing risk is important for any organization and there often appears to be an increasing emphasis on focusing on the downside aspect of risk. However, continuously concentrating on the negative characteristics of risk, without bearing in mind the positive attributes, may be unwise. Significant opportunities may be wasted by always choosing the secure road. The objective of Project Risk Management: Managing Software Development Risk, is to provide a distinct approach to a broad range of risks and rewards associated with the design, development, implementation and deployment of software systems. The traditional perspective of software development risk is to view risk as a negative characteristic associated with the impact of potential threats, the development of risk mitigation plans and the avoidance of potential adverse consequences for software project objectives. The perspective of this book is to explore a more balanced view of software development risks, including the possibility of positive aspects to risk associated with potential beneficial opportunities, and present a view that risk does not always reflect only negative consequences. On the contrary some positive risks may actually represent previously unexplored benefits to a software development project and provide opportunities. Therefore, a balanced approach is required, where software project managers approach negative risks with a view to reduce the likelihood and impact on a software project, and approach positive risks with a view to increase the likelihood of exploiting the positive opportunities. This volume explores software development risk both from a technological and business perspective. Issues regarding strategies for software development are discussed and topics including risks related to technical performance, outsourcing, cybersecurity, scheduling, quality, costs, opportunities and competition are presented. Bringing together concepts across the broad spectrum of software engineering with a project management perspective, this volume represents both a professional and scholarly perspective on the topic. In this overview, we preview the book which consists of two parts: chapters covering fundamental concepts and approaches; and, chapters illustrating applications of these fundamental principles.