Risk Analysis and Management

Nowadays software project is becoming complex in terms of scope, time and cost. Associated with such changes is an increase in potential risks involved in the projects. How can these potential failures be avoided? Only way is ‘Risk Analysis and Management’.
The main goal of Risk Analysis and Management is to avoid risks in the projects. Like Requirement Management, Risk Management process needs to be started in the early stage of development life cycle process.

So, what are some generic strategies for Risk Management? –Let me begin with the following principle that need to be followed to achieve Risk Management.

Risk Identification: Risk identification is one of the key aspects that we need to do throughout the project life cycle. Risks need to be identified as early as possible so that these can be resolved in an easy way.

Risk Category: Risk category provides a list of areas that are prone to risks. Generally, there may be different types of risks involved in the software engineering to identify or sometimes impossible to identify. Some of the most important risks are categorized as,

Internal Risks-Which are evolved within the organization. These may include software requirement risks, scheduling risks, cost risks, quality risks etc.

External Risks-These risks are evolved out of the organization. These may include Technical issues of product, Stability, customer satisfaction etc.

Risk Index:

• Risk Index is the key concept to apply in the Risk Management process.so this helps us to prioritize Risks in terms of the impact.
• Generally, we can Represent the risk in terms of two factors

-Probability of Risk Occurrence and Impact of the Risk

Risk Index can be calculated as,

Risk Index=Probability of Risk Occurrence * Impact of the Risk

• A better analysis also need to be done and then prioritize them based on Risk Index, so that we can get many ways to mitigate these risks and manage them

 How Do You Best manage The Risks?

Do you think that better strategy and better tools are enough to manage Risks in an effective way? Of course, Yes.

-Many tools which are available in the internet today helps us in various ways to manage the risks. Few of the tools are RiskNAV, Risk Matrix, Active Risk Manager.

– There may not be quick solutions for reducing the risks in the project. Some risks are managed continuously and reduced strategically over a long period of time.

Risk management leads to company’s success– which is an effective principle that can be implemented in the Development life cycle. It is an Iterative process and if the right tools, strategies and techniques are used we can get most of the risks involved.

So, when are you starting your effective-Risk Analysis and Management?