Sustainable Risk Management in IT Enterprises

Mateusz Trzeciak

doi:10.3390/risks9070135

Abstract

A synthesis of literature studies covering the determinants of agile project management methods, risk management processes as well as factors influencing the shaping of project success and failure clearly indicates that in most publications on risk in agile managed projects, the human factor is heavily underestimated at the expense of often excessive favoring of procedures. Meanwhile, after analyzing the risk factors that arise in agile-managed IT projects, it became apparent that in addition to aspects such as technology, hardware, system, or even project schedule and cost, the project team is highlighted, which is also the second concept with the GPM P5 Standard for Sustainability in Project Management. Thus, the purpose of this article is to develop a model for risk management in IT projects. As a result of the empirical research carried out by means of an expert interview (108 experts) and a questionnaire survey (123 respondents), a risk management model was developed and six original risk management areas were identified, describing 73.92% of all risk factors that may occur during the implementation of an IT project. Furthermore, empirical studies confirm that basic processes such as risk factor identification, impact assessment, and key risk factor management are used by managers and/or team leaders during the implementation of IT projects.

Highlights

Sustainable Risk Management in ITThe changes in project management approaches observed today (Garwood and Poole2018; Bredillet et al 2018; Cakmakci 2019), especially in the IT industry (Shafiq et al 2018; Bergmann and Karwowski 2018; Bogdanova et al 2020), are caused by operating in an environment often characterized by high levels of volatility and adaptation to market requirements (Appelo 2011; Fioravanti et al 2018)
Considering the specificity of IT projects often burdened with a high level of risk, the agile approach used to manage such projects and the recommendations contained in the literature providing research opportunities using quantitative and qualitative methods, this article focuses on IT projects implemented in an agile approach to project management
The research undertaken in this paper aims to fill an identified gap in the paucity of the presence of a model approach to risk management in an agile project management approach that takes into account stakeholders closely involved in project delivery

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable Risk Management in ITThe changes in project management approaches observed today (Garwood and Poole2018; Bredillet et al 2018; Cakmakci 2019), especially in the IT industry (Shafiq et al 2018; Bergmann and Karwowski 2018; Bogdanova et al 2020), are caused by operating in an environment often characterized by high levels of volatility and adaptation to market requirements (Appelo 2011; Fioravanti et al 2018). As a result of these changes, new trends in project management are taking shape, emerging from the criticism of the traditional approach In the literature, this new approach has been referred to as agile project management (Highsmith 2009; Layton et al 2020; Bogdanova et al 2020) consisting of freedom during project execution, using less formalized and rigorous approaches in favor of greater flexibility of activities to the circumstances in which the project is implemented (Schwaber and Sutherland 2017; Vallon et al 2018; Schmitt and Hörner 2021). Attention was paid to the importance of risk as a measure of the probability and effect of the impact of negative and positive events on the achievement of the project’s success This allowed for the identification of a research gap relating to the model approach to risk management in the agile project management

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