Chapter 6
Risk Management
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Project Risks
What can go wrong?
What is the likelihood?
What will the damage be?
What can we do about it?
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Reactive Risk Management
project team reacts to risks when they occur
mitigationplan for additional resources in anticipation
of fire fighting
fix on failureresource are found and applied when the
risk strikes
crisis managementfailure does not respond to applied
resources and project is in jeopardy
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Proactive Risk Management
formal risk analysis is performed
organization corrects the root causes of
risk
TQM concepts and statistical SQA
examining risk sources that lie beyond the bounds of
the software
developing the skill to manage change
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Risk Management Paradigm
control
track
RISK
identify
plan
analyze
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Building a Risk Table
Risk
Probability
Impact
RMMM
Risk
Mitigation
Monitoring
&
Management
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Building the Risk Table
Estimate the probability of occurrence
Estimate the impact on the project on a
scale of 1 to 5, where
1 = low impact on project success
5 = catastrophic impact on project success
sort the table by probability and impact
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Risk Mitigation, Monitoring,
and Management
mitigationhow can we avoid the risk?
monitoringwhat factors can we track
that will enable us to determine if the risk
is becoming more or less likely?
managementwhat contingency plans
do we have if the risk becomes a reality?
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Risk Due to Product Size
Attributes that affect risk:
estimated size of the product in LOC or FP?
estimated size of product in number of programs,
files, transactions?
percentage deviation in size of product from
average for previous products?
size of database created or used by the product?
number of users of the product?
number of projected changes to the requirements
for the product? before delivery? after delivery?
amount of reused software?
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
Risk Due to Business Impact
Attributes that affect risk:
affect of this product on company revenue?
visibility of this product by senior management?
reasonableness of delivery deadline?
number of customers who will use this product
interoperability constraints
sophistication of end users?
amount and quality of product documentation that
must be produced and delivered to the customer?
governmental constraints
costs associated with late delivery?
costs associated with a defective product?
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
10
Risks Due to the Customer
Questions that must be answered:
Have you worked with the customer in the past?
Does the customer have a solid idea of requirements?
Has the customer agreed to spend time with you?
Is the customer willing to participate in reviews?
Is the customer technically sophisticated?
Is the customer willing to let your people do their
jobthat is, will the customer resist looking over your
shoulder during technically detailed work?
Does the customer understand the software
engineering process?
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
11
Risks Due to Process Maturity
Questions that must be answered:
Have you established a common process framework?
Is it followed by project teams?
Do you have management support for
software engineering
Do you have a proactive approach to SQA?
Do you conduct formal technical reviews?
Are CASE tools used for analysis, design and
testing?
Are the tools integrated with one another?
Have document formats been established?
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
12
Technology Risks
Questions that must be answered:
Is the technology new to your organization?
Are new algorithms, I/O technology required?
Is new or unproven hardware involved?
Does the application interface with new software?
Is a specialized user interface required?
Is the application radically different?
Are you using new software engineering methods?
Are you using unconventional software development
methods, such as formal methods, AI-based approaches,
artificial neural networks?
Are there significant performance constraints?
Is there doubt the functionality requested is "do-able?"
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
13
Staff/People Risks
Questions that must be answered:
Are the best people available?
Does staff have the right skills?
Are enough people available?
Are staff committed for entire duration?
Will some people work part time?
Do staff have the right expectations?
Have staff received necessary training?
Will turnover among staff be low?
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
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Recording Risk Information
Project: Embedded software for XYZ system
Risk type: schedule risk
Priority (1 low ... 5 critical): 4
Risk factor: Project completion will depend on tests which require
hardware component under development. Hardware component
delivery may be delayed
Probability: 60 %
Impact: Project completion will be delayed for each day that
hardware is unavailable for use in software testing
Monitoring approach:
Scheduled milestone reviews with hardware group
Contingency plan:
Modification of testing strategy to accommodate delay using
software simulation
Estimated resources: 6 additional person months beginning 7-1-96
These courseware materials are to be used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach, 5/e and are
provided with permission by R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc., copyright 1996, 2001
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