Top Fifty Software Risk Factors and the Best Thirty Risk Management Techniques in Software Development Lifecycle for Successful Software Projects

Abstract

The concern of this study is to identify software risks and controls in the software development lifecycle. The aim of this study is to rank the software risks factors according to their importance and occurrence frequency based on the data source. The survey questionnaire is used to collect data and method of sample selection referred to as ‘snowball’ and distribution personal regular sampling was used. The seventy six software project managers have participated in this study who works in the Palestinian software development. Fifty software risk factors in all phases SDLC and thirty risk management techniques were presented to respondents. The results show that all risks in software projects were significant and important in software project manager's perspective. However, the ranking of the importance of the risks is assigned according to it: Analysis, planning, maintenance, design, and implementation. In addition, the top ten software risk factors in software development are selected and used for further analysis such as: Risk13, Risk 14, Risk15, Risk16, Risk11, Risk18, Risk12, Risk50, Risk19, and Risk 9. The concern of this paper the top ten controls are used to model its relationship with the risk, such as: C29, C30, C20, C27, C21, C19, C28, C25, C26, and C23. Software risks can be modelled empirically with risk management control techniques. We recommended applying more studies in software risk management practices with real world companies and building tools to identification and analysis software risks based on quantitative and intelligent techniques.