Risk associated with software development: a holistic framework for assessment and management

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Abstract
Although the management of risk in the development process is critical for all engineering disciplines, this paper focuses on the software development process and proposes a framework for the assessment and management of risk associated with this process. The proposed framework is grounded on a holistic concept termed hierarchical holographic modeling, where more than one perspective or vision of the risk associated with software development is analyzed. Three perspectives, or decompositions, are introduced: 1) functional decomposition, which encompasses seven basic attributes associated with software development-requirement, product, process, people, management, environment, and system development; 2) source-based decomposition, which relates to the four sources of failure-hardware, software, organizational, and human; and 3) temporal decomposition, which relates to the stages in the software development process. The following set of questions is addressed at each level of the hierarchical holographic submodels: What can go wrong? What is the likelihood that it will go wrong? What are the consequences? What can be done? What options are available? What are the associated trade-offs in terms of all costs, benefits, and risks? And what is the impact of current management decisions on future options? Once the ''universe'' of risk-based problems has been identified, then a risk ranking method is applied to provide priorities among them. Because software development is an intellectual, labor-intensive activity, this paper pays special attention to the role of human resource development and improvement in risk assessment. The paper is the first among a set of articles on the risk associated with software development.

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