Risk Management for Technology Projects

1. Risk Management for Technology Projects Geography 463 : GIS Workshop May 5 2005

2. The Basics of Project Management for Technology Projects; Part 3Presentation Outline • The Software Engineering /Application Development Profession • Risk Management Principles and Practices • Case Study: Risk Management in a GIS application

3. Themes for tonight’s presentation: • There are Software Engineering skills, beyond the latest programming languages, that are timeless and valuable. • Each step in the Software Development Lifecycle has its own risks and a number of ways to address them.

4. Section OneSoftware Development Careers • Ten Basic Knowledge Areas • Construx Inc Capability Levels • Activities that promote professional career development

5. Ten basic Knowledge Areas for Software Developers (SWEBOK….www.swebok.org) • Requirements Gathering • Software Design • Construction • Testing • Maintenance

6. Ten basic Knowledge Areas for Software Developers (continued) • Configuration Management • Project Management • Software Engineering Management • Software Engineering Tools and Methods • Software Quality

7. A few words on Testing • Definition: dynamic verification of the behavior of a program • Structural Testing: to ensure test cases really test all lines of code • Functional Testing: Ensure that for each requirement, there is at least one test case

8. Software Developer Capability Levels (at Construx Inc) • Apprentice: Basic work in a knowledge area • Practitioner: Effective, independent worker • Leader: Can lead others in knowledge area • Master: Guru, teacher and enabler

9. Job Skills Profiles • Chart of Knowledge Areas and Capability Levels • Defines Job Roles by looking at Profiles • Career development plans are created by doing GAP analysis

10. Professional CareerDevelopment Strategies Direct Experience Readings Classes Certifications Industry Participation

11. Summary • General Knowledge Areas will: • remain fairly constant • many are not “outsource-able” • Effective Professional Development Requires: • Book Knowledge…why you do things • Mentoring..to guide one along the way • Experience…How you do things successfully and more efficiently & effectively

12. Section TwoRisk Management Principles and Practices • “The Opposite of Risk Management is Reckless Management” • Steve Tockey, Principal Consultant, Construx Software

13. Terminology • Risk: potential for realization of unwanted, adverse consequences to human life, health, property, or the environment (Society for Risk Analysis). • Risk: The possibility of suffering loss • Risk Events: The actualization of a hazard, threat, or accident.

14. Terminology (continued) • Impact: The negative consequences of an event / accident / occurrence • Likelihood: The probability based on historical patterns / frequency that an event w/ a specific impact will occur • Risk Signature: An activity, program, or asset’s level of risk arrived at by combining likelihood and impact

15. More Terminology • Control Measures: Actions taken, contingency plans developed or measures taken to reduce the level of risk • Risk Appetite: The level of risk the organization is willing to take

16. Managing Risk • Goal: Establish a culture within an organization, or on a project team, that understand and continuously identifies, analyzes, manages and communicates risk at all levels of the organization, or all phases of a project.

17. Managing Risk • Inventory • Assess and Prioritize • Analyze • Implement Control Measures • Monitor, Audit, and Review • Report

18. Analysis Phase • Define the universe and inventory its elements • Assess risk by Category (Legal, Environmental, Safety, Public relations..) • Review possible control measures • Recommend Alternatives

19. Possible Control Measures • Accepting, Sharing, or Divesting of a risk • Policies • Procedures • Training • New or improved equipment (or tools) • Change in processes

20. Risk in Software Project • Source: Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute….www.sei.cmu.edu • Loss in a development project describes the impact to the project which could result in: • Diminished Product Quality • Increased Costs • Delayed Completion or Failure

21. Risk and Opportunity • Many software projects have goals to do things in new and different ways • Few opportunities can be realized without risk • Risk must be identified and constantly balanced against potential benefits • Project Managers live for Risk Management

22. Risk Management in Software Engineering Projects • Assess continuously what can go wrong • Determine what risks are important enough to deal with • Implement strategies to deal with individual and systematic risks • Communicate risks at all levels

23. Risk Principles: a framework for effective control of risks • Global Perspective / Big Picture • Forward-looking View • Open Communications • Integrated Management • Continuous Process • Shared Product Vision • Teamwork

24. Summary: Continuous Risk Management • Identify: search for & locate risks first • Analyze: Transform risk into decision-making information. Evaluate impacts, liklihood. Classify and prioritize risks • Plan: Translate risk information into decisions and actions • Track: monitor risk indicators & mitigation actions • Control: Correct based on metrics

25. Using GIS to Manage Risk

27. Section ThreeRisk Management Case Study • Adapting Seattle’s GIS presence on the world wide web in the post “Sept 11” world