Systemic assessment of risks for projects: A systems and Cybernetics approach

Abstract

The current and past success rate of software projects is poor. This is mainly due to the reductionist/ analytic methods used in project risk assessments. The risk assessment practices adhered today based on standards or otherwise are non-systemic. These assessments cannot provide or deal with the systemic view of Project risks. They handle the project context and complex issues in Projects inadequately. The issue with reductionist thinking is that it leads to reductionist approach to problem solving and history has shown us Project failures continue to happen. This paper explains the Systemic Assessment of Risks (SAR) methodology that is proposed for assessment of project risks by considering Project as a system. This methodology uses the Cybernetics Risk Influence Diagramming (CRID) technique for identification of probable interconnected, interrelated and emergent risks. SAR's application in a software development project in a telecommunications enterprise demonstrates the methodology with the project risks assessed systemically.