Dependability approach for evaluating software development risks

Abstract

Software development is usually impacted by risks (e.g. schedule delays and increased costs), which may lead to the failure of the software project. Several techniques have been proposed to evaluate the effects of such undesirable issues, but probability estimates are usually neglected, affecting a proper evaluation of risks. This work presents an approach based on dependability models (e.g. stochastic Petri nets) for probabilistic evaluation of risks regarding the turnover of team members and requirement implementation in software development projects. Two case studies are adopted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technique.