RISK MANAGEMENT IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
WRITTEN ON 03/10/2011
INTRODUCTION
Anything worth doing has risks. The challenge is not to avoid them but to manage them. Risk is an uncertainty. Risk Management is the total process to identify, control, and minimize the impact of uncertain events.
CONTINUATION
Risk Management is an attempt to minimize the chances of failure caused by unplanned events. Risks are events or conditions that may occur, and whose occurrence, if it does take place, has a harmful or negative effect.
CONTINUATION
Risk management means anticipating risks and preparing plans to reduce their effect. The Risks we encounter in a project should be resolved so that we are able to deliver the desired project to the customer. The project should be managed in such a way that the risks dont affect the project in a big way.
THREATS, VULNERABILITIES & BREACHES Threat Potential for an event to occur having adverse consequences Vulnerability A weakness in a system which increases the likelihood of a failure (e.g. security breach) Breach/Failure Exploitation of a vulnerability yielding unauthorised access to a system or failure
RISK IDENTIFICATION IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT Where Risk are adverse circumstance that may happen and affect negatively the project, the product, and/or the business Categories of risk:
Project risks Product risks Business risks
TYPES OF RISK IDENTIFICATION
Risk type Technology People Organisational Tools Requirements Estimation Potential indicators Late delivery of hardware or support software, many reported technology problems Poor staff morale, poor relationships amongst team member, job availability Organisational gossip, lack of action by senior management Reluctance by team members to use tools, complaints about CASE tools, demands for higher-powered workstations Many requirements change requests, customer complaints Failure to meet agreed schedule, failure to clear reported defects
RISK IDENTIFICATION
Threats Natural disasters (fire, flood, lightning) Infrastructure failures (blackouts, head crash, communications outage) Software defects (buffer overflows) Government policies (ban on SPAM) Intruders & illegitimate use (hacking, sniffing) Human limitation (user errors, staff shortages)
RISK MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Basically project management deals with the following phases ; Planning: Looking for the desired results, the strategies to be applied. Organizing: Getting all the things together so that the desired results are obtained. By organizing the efficiency is increased and lot of time is saved.
CONTINATION
Directing: Communication takes place and exchange of ideas is formatted in this phase. Controlling: In the last phase feedback and evaluation is done.
RISK MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS
Preparing for Risks: Looking for the external and internal Risks : Uncertain requirements Unknown technology Infeasible Design Cost And Schedule uncertainty
CONTINATION
Identify and Analyze Risks: We need to identify the risks and understand the nature of risks and prioritize the risks and try to solve the risks. Mitigate the risks: In this phase we have risk acceptance, risk transfer, risk avoidance, risk control. We implement them in this phase so that we can mitigate the risks.
RISK OCCURANCE Personnel shortfalls Unrealistic schedules and budgets Developing the wrong functions and properties Developing the wrong user interface Real-time performance shortfalls
HOW TO MANAGE RISKS 1.Determine risk sources and Categories. 2.Determine Risk Parameters 3.Establish a Risk Management Strategy 4.Identify Risks 5.Evaluate and prioritize the risks. 6.Develop and Implement Risk mitigation plans
CONCLUSION
To manage the risks we need to establish a strong bond between the customers and the team members. A strong base about risk management would help a great deal in tackling the risks. Software metrics and tools can be developed to manage the risks. Risk necessarily need not be negative and it can be viewed as an opportunity to develop our projects in a better way
