Project planning and risk management as a success factor for IT projects in agricultural schools in Serbia

Software development can be considered to be the most uncertain project when compared to other projects due to uncertainty in the customer requirements, the complexity of the process, and the intangible nature of the product. In order to increase the chance of success in managing a software project, the project manager(s) must invest more time and effort in the project planning phase, which involves such primary and integrated activities as effort estimation and risk management, because the accuracy of the effort estimation is highly dependent on the size and number of project risks in a particular software project. However, as is common practice, these two activities are often disconnected from each other and project managers have come to consider such steps to be unreliable due to their lack of accuracy. This chapter introduces the Fuzzy-ExCOM Model, which is used for software project planning and is based on fuzzy technique. It has the capability to not only integrate the effort estimation and risk assessment activities but also to provide information about the estimated effort, the project risks, and the effort contingency allowance necessary to accommodate the identified risk. A validation of this model using the project’s research data shows that this new approach is capable of improving the existing COCOMO estimation performance.

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Fuzzy Rules for Risk Assessment and Contingency Estimation Within COCOMO Software Project Planning Model

Global Business Expansion ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-5481-3.ch035 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 771-797

Author(s):

Ekananta Manalif ◽

Luiz Fernando Capretz ◽

Danny Ho

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Risk Management ◽

Project Planning ◽

Project Managers ◽

Research Data ◽

Software Project ◽

Planning Model ◽

Effort Estimation ◽

New Approach ◽

Project Risks

Software development can be considered to be the most uncertain project when compared to other projects due to uncertainty in the customer requirements, the complexity of the process, and the intangible nature of the product. In order to increase the chance of success in managing a software project, the project manager(s) must invest more time and effort in the project planning phase, which involves such primary and integrated activities as effort estimation and risk management, because the accuracy of the effort estimation is highly dependent on the size and number of project risks in a particular software project. However, as is common practice, these two activities are often disconnected from each other and project managers have come to consider such steps to be unreliable due to their lack of accuracy. This chapter introduces the Fuzzy-ExCOM Model, which is used for software project planning and is based on fuzzy technique. It has the capability to not only integrate the effort estimation and risk assessment activities but also to provide information about the estimated effort, the project risks, and the effort contingency allowance necessary to accommodate the identified risk. A validation of this model using the project's research data shows that this new approach is capable of improving the existing COCOMO estimation performance.

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Risk Management in Distributed IT Projects

Global Information Technologies ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-939-7.ch205 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 2865-2888

Author(s):

Rafael Prikladnicki ◽

Roberto Evaristo ◽

Jorge Luis Nicolas Audy ◽

Marcelo Hideki Yamaguti

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Management Process ◽

Time Zone ◽

It Projects ◽

Cultural Boundaries ◽

Integrated Risk ◽

Risk Management Process ◽

Development Center ◽

Practical Implications

Distributed IT projects exhibit certain features that make them fundamentally different from traditional co-located projects, not only involving additional steps and decisions, but also impacting the risk management process. The goal of this paper is to discuss these impacts and to suggest the development of an integrated risk management process taking into account site dispersion, time zone difference, and cultural boundaries not only at the operational, but also at the tactical and strategic level. We also report results of an exploratory case study conducted in a software development center (a Brazilian subsidiary of a U.S. corporation) in support of such a model, and conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of our work.

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Risk Management in Distributed IT Projects

E-Collaboration ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-652-5.ch094 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 1243-1257

Author(s):

Rafael Prikladnicki ◽

Roberto Evaristo ◽

Jorge Luis Nicolas Audy ◽

Marcelo Hideki Yamaguti

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Management Process ◽

Time Zone ◽

It Projects ◽

Cultural Boundaries ◽

Integrated Risk ◽

Risk Management Process ◽

Development Center ◽

Practical Implications

Distributed IT projects exhibit certain features that make them fundamentally different from traditional co-located projects, not only involving additional steps and decisions, but also impacting the risk management process. The goal of this paper is to discuss these impacts and to suggest the development of an integrated risk management process taking into account site dispersion, time zone difference, and cultural boundaries not only at the operational, but also at the tactical and strategic level. We also report results of an exploratory case study conducted in a software development center (a Brazilian subsidiary of a U.S. corporation) in support of such a model, and conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of our work.

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Risk management reconceived: reconciling economic rationality with behavioural tendencies

Journal of Project Program & Portfolio Management ◽

10.5130/pppm.v1i1.1573 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ruth Murray-Webster ◽

Sergio Pellegrinelli

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Management Practices ◽

Economic Value ◽

Project Planning ◽

Economic Rationality ◽

Planning And Control ◽

Gain Loss ◽

Audit Activity ◽

And Control ◽

Biases And Heuristics

Risk management practices as described in many leading texts feel counterintuitive to many practitioners and are frequently ignored, despite their being evidently logical and potentially valuable. Such practices are often conceived as a remedial post-planning, audit activity. This paper proposes an approach for dealing with project uncertainty and risk, grounded in economics and taking into account behavioural biases and heuristics. The proposed approach is argued to be an enhancement to conventional risk management practices and one that can serve organisations better while also aligning to experienced practitioners’ intuitive approaches. In particular, we argue: that the focus should be on adding economic value rather than reducing risk per se; that opportunity gain/loss is a superior metric for gauging potential impacts of risky events; and that creation of real options should be emphasised as part of the repertoire of generic response actions to risk. The approach also supports the integration and handling of uncertainty and risk as part of holistic project planning and control.

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