A Prototype for Information-Dense IT Project Risk Reporting: An Action Design Research Approach

Abstract

Project risk management has been proposed as an important topic to prevent the failure of large IT projects. But while literature intensively deals with the risk management process, surprisingly little effort has been put into "the last mile", namely the precise, concise, and unambiguous communication of risks to decision makers. Popular misinterpretations of traffic light-based reports confirm this call for action. Hence, we propose a prototype for information-dense IT project risk reporting including a novel risk report design. This prototype has been designed and applied in a large-scale IT project building on the Action Design Research approach. By drawing on design principles derived from both academic literature and practical experience, we show the advantages of this design compared to traditional IT project risk reports used in business practice. We conclude with an outlook on future work such as the prototype's evaluation in an experimental setting.