Software Development Risk Management Research Articles

Insights of effectivity analysis of learning-based approaches towards software defect prediction

Software defect prediction is one of the essential sets of operation towards mitigating issues of risk management in software development known to contribute towards enhancing the quality of software. There is evolution of various methodologies towards resolving this issue while learning-based methodology is witnessed to be the most dominant contributor. The problem identified is that there are yet many unsolved queries associated with practical viability of such learning-based approach adoption in software quality management. Proposed approaches discussed in this paper contributes towards mitigating this challenge by introducing a simplified, compact, and crisp analysis of effectiveness associated with learning-based schemes. The paper presents its major findings of effectivity analysis of machine learning, deep learning, hybrid, and other miscellaneous approaches deployed for fault prediction followed by highlighting research trend. The major findings infer that feature selection, data imbalance, interpretability, and in adequate involvement of context are prime gaps in existing methods. The paper also contributes towards research gap as well as essential learning outcomes of present review work.

Risk management in software development in the field of information protection

In the context of increasing digitalization of sea and river transport, the immersion of the entire transport infrastructure in the digital environment, the volume of information flows serving the transport process is increasing, and the requirements for information protection are increasing in conditions of an aggressive external information environment. In the digital environment, a software product must not only serve the document flow of transport chains, but also ensure its confidentiality. Automation of transport facilities (ships, platforms, berths, warehouses) management increases their potential vulnerability from unauthorized access to control systems; the latter must be taken into account in servicing programs, increasing their size (for example, there is a need to fragment coherent information blocks and their alternative routing). This, in turn, increases the risk of errors in the software products themselves and significantly complicates their structure. Risks of failures (including confidentiality violations) during the software operation that implements information exchange can entail significant material and reputational losses for the developer. If the developer is legally and functionally involved in the industry, such losses can and should be considered among the general range of risks in water transport. An important aspect of risk management, which until recently was practically not considered in a quantitative aspect within the framework of mathematical models, is the joint consideration of losses when a risk situation occurs and the developer’s costs associated with reducing the likelihood of such occurrences; the latter may entail a reduction in the total expected losses, formalized as the corresponding mathematical expectation. As a result, risk management can be formulated in terms of mathematical programming problems with different (discrete or continuous) sets of constraints and with different properties of objective functions.

A novel risk management model in the Scrum and extreme programming hybrid methodology

<span>Risk management in software development has always been one of the necessities of software project management. The logical nature of software projects and products has caused several challenges and risks in these projects. On the other hand, with the emergence of Agile methodologies, especially Scrum, and extreme programming (XP) methodologies, in recent years, this issue has become more serious. This is mainly because emphasizing limited documentation in these methodologies has caused these methods to pay little attention to some aspects of project management, particularly risk management. Concentrating on this challenge, the current study has proposed a risk management model in the hybrid methodology, combining Scrum and XP. Using this model in a case study shows this model's success in achieving risk management purposes. The results of this study indicate an appropriate reduction in the number of reworks, change requests, identified risks, and occurred risks. Moreover, the number of eliminated risks and team productivity have increased.</span>

Risk Management in Software Development Projects

Effective risk management contributes to the success of the software development project. The goal of this work was to identify risk management gaps, perspectives, the evolution of the theme and the study trends, in software development projects, using systematic literature review as a method. For the bibliometric analysis, articles referring to the topic were selected in the period from 2010 to 2018. As tools of analysis, Citespace and VOS Viewer software were used, allowing a comparative evaluation between the articles, as well as the analysis of clusters. Beyond content analysis of articles found. Gaps were identified for performance; team involvement; attention to failures; identification of tools for decision-making; and business strategy. In turn, perspectives were determined for research trends, such as the close relationship between business strategy, risk management and new management models. The research can propose new strategies and perspectives for risk management in software development and show their importance to the academic and practical spheres, demonstrating that the themes are complementary and important in the current technological and innovation sector.

A-21 ソフトウェア開発におけるリスクマネジメントの研究 : 開発実施工程におけるリスクの特定

A-21 ソフトウェア開発におけるリスクマネジメントの研究 : 開発実施工程におけるリスクの特定

Managing Software Risks in Maintenance Projects, from a Vendor Perspective

Global software development exposes projects to the challenges arising from geo-cultural spread of the team and delegation of project ownership. Therefore, risk management in global software development receives attention from many researchers today. The primary focus in this paper is an investigation of risks associated with the maintenance of information systems by teams distributed across geographical locations, cultures, and vendors. Here the authors present the case study of a large offshore outsourced program that maintained a portfolio of business applications for a fortune 500 US client. The program exhibited a wide variety of characteristics typical of maintenance projects. The study investigated the risks, risk resolution techniques, lessons learned and best practices adopted in the program, from a vendor perspective. The findings provide useful insights into understanding and responding to the challenges in initiating, transitioning and managing global software maintenance projects.

Why project size matters for contract choice in software development outsourcing

The contractual mechanism of software development outsourcing, typically either fixed-price (FP) or time-and-materials (T&M), determines the nature of incentives, risk sharing, and coordination between client and vendor. While software engineering considers project size as crucial for project planning and success, neither economic nor organizational theory considers size per se among the determinants of contract choice. In this paper, we address the gap between the centrality of project size in the software engineering literature and the attention it receives in software contracting research by modeling and testing the association between project size and contract choice. Existing empirical evidence indicates that FP contracts are appropriate for small development efforts whereas T&M contracts are suitable for larger projects, based on the reasoning that cost and schedule are difficult to estimate in larger projects. This prediction that size is directly associated with contract choice is the basis upon which two models are developed. The first model draws on the contracting efficiency approach to hypothesize that the effect of project size on contract choice is mediated by project detail. The second model draws on the contingency approach to software development risk management to hypothesize that the effect of project size on contract choice is moderated by project detail and vendor familiarity. We test these models using a large portfolio of software development contracts entered into by a leading European bank, and the results confirm that both mediation and moderation are at play.

Risk Management in Software Development using Artificial Neural Networks

industry is one of the biggest industries around the world with several software projects being developed which vary in size, cost, complexity, etc. During development, many risks of different types arise such as lack of staff experience, new technologies, budgets, etc. These risks play a huge role in success or failure of a project. Most of the available risk management solutions are too costly and time consuming. There is a need for an efficient risk management technique. To assist the project manager in risk management, we have developed an application which will identify the risks involved during software development and predict the success or failure of the project using Artificial Neural Networks. The prediction will be done using historical data taking the important and common risk factors into account. After risk identification, the probability of success or failure will be determined and suggestions for risk mitigation will be provided for the project. This application will help the project managers in carrying out risk management activities efficiently.

An empirical study on the implementation and evaluation of a goal-driven software development risk management model

ContextBuilding a quality software product in the shortest possible time to satisfy the global market demand gives an enterprise a competitive advantage. However, uncertainties and risks exist at every stage of a software development project. These can have an extremely high influence on the success of the final software product. Early risk management practice is effective to manage such risks and contributes effectively towards the project success. ObjectiveDespite risk management approaches, a detailed guideline that explains where to integrate risk management activities into the project is still missing. Little effort has been directed towards the evaluation of the overall impact of a risk management method. We present a Goal-driven Software Development Risk Management Model (GSRM) and its explicit integration into the requirements engineering phase and an empirical investigation result of applying GSRM into a project. MethodWe combine the case study method with action research so that the results from the case study directly contribute to manage the studied project risks and to identify ways to improve the proposed methodology. The data is collected from multiple sources and analysed both in a qualitative and quantitative way. ResultsWhen risk factors are beyond the control of the project manager and project environment, it is difficult to control these risks. The project scope affects all the dimensions of risk. GSRM is a reasonable risk management method that can be employed in an industrial context. The study results have been compared against other study results in order to generalise findings and identify contextual factors. ConclusionA formal early stage risk management practice provides early warning related to the problems that exists in a project, and it contributes to the overall project success. It is not necessary to always consider budget and schedule constraints as top priority. There exist issues such as requirements, change management, and user satisfaction which can influence these constraints.

Towards a Framework for Offshore Outsource Software Development Risk Management Model

Due to high demands on cost savings in software development projects, offshore outsource software development is becoming increasingly popular. Offshore outsourcing takes advantages of large labor pool in low- wage countries, round-the-clock development, and easy access to additional resources, in addition to the development cost savings. However, there are risks associated to this trend, as it brings new challenges into the development process, where some may even jeopardise the cost savings. The geographical and cultural distance is one part of the problem, inexperienced developers and lack of communication and a common cultural basis are other challenges. We therefore advocate the use of risk management (RM) to control risks in offshore outsource development. Here we present a RM framework tailored for such development contexts. The model; Goal-driven Software Development Risk Management modelling (GSRM) framework, assesses and manages risk during the early development phases, where risks can easier be tackled at a reasonable cost. The framework is comprised of four layers that together identify and link project goals, risks and treatments together in a goal-risk causal relationship model. The goal model makes use of an extended subset of the KAOS goal modelling language. We report on a study project focusing on the efficiency of the GSRM process model.

A State-of-the-Practice Survey of Risk Management in Development with Off-the-Shelf Software Components

An international survey on risk management in software development with off-the-shelf (OTS) components is reported upon and discussed. The survey investigated actual risk-management activities and their correlations with the occurrences of typical risks in OTS component-based development. Data from 133 software projects in Norway, Italy, and Germany were collected using a stratified random sample of IT companies. The results show that OTS components normally do not contribute negatively to the quality of the software system as a whole, as is commonly expected. However, issues such as the underestimation of integration effort and inefficient debugging remain problematic and require further investigation. The results also illustrate several promising effective risk-reduction activities, e.g., putting more effort into learning relevant OTS components, integrating unfamiliar components first, thoroughly evaluating the quality of candidate OTS components, and regularly monitoring the support capability of OTS providers. Five hypotheses are proposed regarding these risk-reduction activities. The results also indicate that several other factors, such as project, cultural, and human-social factors, have to be investigated to thoroughly deal with the possible risks of OTS-based projects.

Prediction of IS Project Escalation Based on Software Development Risk Management

Information system project failure is described as a common phenomenon. Escalation occurs when there are continued commitments for a troubled project and has been observed as one pattern of failure. The main purpose of this research was to investigate whether software development risks were the factors to discriminate between escalated projects and non-escalated projects. Thirty critical risks were selected and classified into nine risk categories under three dimensions such as product, people, and process. Probability and loss in each nine risk category were measured on the basis of 247 survey cases from IS professionals. The results show that the risk probability in the people dimension and the process dimension with management aspects was more important to predict escalation than the risk loss in those dimensions and the risk impact in the product dimension with technical aspects. The results imply that managerial factors are more critical than technical factors in predicting IS development project escalation. Additionally, it was noticed that the CMM level of an organisation was very significant to predict successful projects.

Managing risk in software development projects: a case study

PurposeThe main objective of the paper is to develop a risk management framework for software development projects from developers' perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a combined qualitative and quantitative technique with the active involvement of stakeholders in order to identify, analyze and respond to risks. The entire methodology has been explained using a case study on software development project in a public sector organization in Barbados.FindingsAnalytical approach to managing risk in software development ensures effective delivery of projects to clients.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed risk management framework has been applied to a single case.Practical implicationsSoftware development projects are characterized by technical complexity, market and financial uncertainties and competent manpower availability. Therefore, successful project accomplishment depends on addressing those issues throughout the project phases. Effective risk management ensures the success of projects.Originality/valueThere are several studies on managing risks in software development and information technology (IT) projects. Most of the studies identify and prioritize risks through empirical research in order to suggest mitigating measures. Although they are important to clients for future projects, these studies fail to provide any framework for risk management from software developers' perspective. Although a few studies introduced framework of risk management in software development, most of them are presented from clients' perspectives and very little effort has been made to integrate this with the software development cycle. As software developers absorb considerable amount of risks, an integrated framework for managing risks in software development from developers' perspective is needed.

Reflective responsibility for risk: a critical view of software and information systems development risk management

Most ethical theories are based on the assumption that the results of actions are known and are part of the ethical evaluation of moral behaviour. This leads to fundamental problems of the ethical evaluation of future states because the future is by definition unknown. Risks as known uncertainties that result from human action often have morally relevant consequences but they defy easy classification in moral philosophy. As a general idea of how the ethical problems of risk can be addressed, this paper suggests the concept of reflective responsibility. Reflective responsibility is based on the overarching commonalities of all responsibility ascriptions as being open, teleological, and close to action. The concept of reflective responsibility is applied to risk management in software and information systems development. The paper will conclude that successful responsibility ascriptions in risk management are only possible if the socially constructed nature of risk is taken into consideration.

Stochastically Simulating Low Morale - A Risk Factor Effect on Risk Management

One of the proposed purposes for software process simulation is the management of software development risks, usually discussed within the category of project planning and management. However, modeling and simulation primarily for the purpose of software development risk management has not been explored and is quite limited. This study describes an approach to simulate Low Morale - a risk factor, to analyze its effect on certain software development risk management activities.

Stochastic simulation of risk factor potential effects for software development risk management

One of the proposed purposes for software process simulation is the management of software development risks, usually discussed within the category of project planning/management. However, modeling and simulation primarily for the purpose of software development risk management has been quite limited. This paper describes an approach to modeling risk factors and simulating their effects as a means of supporting certain software development risk management activities. The effects of six common and significant software development risk factors were studied. A base model was then produced for stochastically simulating the effects of the selected factors. This simulator is a tool designed specifically for the risk management activities of assessment, mitigation, contingency planning, and intervention.