Early Risk Assessment in IT Projects

Early Risk Assessment in IT Projects PDF Author: Hazel A. Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Information technology
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
There is an abundance of research advice and practitioner guidance on how to manage risk in information technology (IT) projects. It seems that everyone knows what they should do with respect to risk management, and yet the promised payoffs from following risk management procedures do not eventuate across industries and organizations, IT projects have an unenviable reputation, with projects failing outright or at least failing to live up to expectations. Does this failure result from inadequacies in the risk management guidance that organizations rely on, or is it a failure by organizations and their project managers to effectively implement this guidance? In this paper we discuss one organization's innovative approach to making IT project risk management realistic, practical, and effective. The IT project risk management approach presented here is the culmination of over five years of collaborative practice research within the Project Management Center of Excellence (PMCoE) of a large, municipal organization. The aim of the initiative was to improve the organization's IT project success rate, and the PMCoE worked through three practical action research cycles to develop and refine a new approach to early risk assessment. The approach is well founded in research findings, and the PMCoE has been able to demonstrate its effectiveness through careful monitoring of project performance data. The PMCoE's contingency-based risk assessment process provides a visual aid for surfacing overall inherent risk at the early stages of IT projects, thereby enabling the proactive implementation of strategies to establish an appropriate level of oversight and to improve foundational elements of the project when it is still malleable. The PMCoE's early risk assessment process, and the risk spider chart that is the primary tool in this assessment, involves a review of a small set of project dimensions known to be related to project performance, without requiring probability-impact estimates of individual risks, which often amount to little more than guesswork at the stages leading up to project launch. The dimension-based assessment provides an easily measurable determination of the overall risk level of a project at the very early stages of the project, and enables the PMCoE to make suggestions to improve the odds of success from the start. The risk assessment process and risk spider chart tool have now been used on over 100 projects, and the organization has been able to demonstrate a steady improvement in project metrics since 2006 when the work began. The PMCoE's early project risk assessment process is readily customizable for different organizations and project contexts, and provides a model for other organizations striving to engage in effective practices to improve IT project outcomes.

Early Risk Assessment in IT Projects

Early Risk Assessment in IT Projects PDF Author: Hazel A. Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Information technology
Languages : en
Pages : 23

Get Book Here

Book Description
There is an abundance of research advice and practitioner guidance on how to manage risk in information technology (IT) projects. It seems that everyone knows what they should do with respect to risk management, and yet the promised payoffs from following risk management procedures do not eventuate across industries and organizations, IT projects have an unenviable reputation, with projects failing outright or at least failing to live up to expectations. Does this failure result from inadequacies in the risk management guidance that organizations rely on, or is it a failure by organizations and their project managers to effectively implement this guidance? In this paper we discuss one organization's innovative approach to making IT project risk management realistic, practical, and effective. The IT project risk management approach presented here is the culmination of over five years of collaborative practice research within the Project Management Center of Excellence (PMCoE) of a large, municipal organization. The aim of the initiative was to improve the organization's IT project success rate, and the PMCoE worked through three practical action research cycles to develop and refine a new approach to early risk assessment. The approach is well founded in research findings, and the PMCoE has been able to demonstrate its effectiveness through careful monitoring of project performance data. The PMCoE's contingency-based risk assessment process provides a visual aid for surfacing overall inherent risk at the early stages of IT projects, thereby enabling the proactive implementation of strategies to establish an appropriate level of oversight and to improve foundational elements of the project when it is still malleable. The PMCoE's early risk assessment process, and the risk spider chart that is the primary tool in this assessment, involves a review of a small set of project dimensions known to be related to project performance, without requiring probability-impact estimates of individual risks, which often amount to little more than guesswork at the stages leading up to project launch. The dimension-based assessment provides an easily measurable determination of the overall risk level of a project at the very early stages of the project, and enables the PMCoE to make suggestions to improve the odds of success from the start. The risk assessment process and risk spider chart tool have now been used on over 100 projects, and the organization has been able to demonstrate a steady improvement in project metrics since 2006 when the work began. The PMCoE's early project risk assessment process is readily customizable for different organizations and project contexts, and provides a model for other organizations striving to engage in effective practices to improve IT project outcomes.

Risk Management in Software Development Projects

Risk Management in Software Development Projects PDF Author: John McManus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136367918
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Very few software projects are completed on time, on budget, and to their original specification causing the global IT software industry to lose billions each year in project overruns and reworking software. Research supports that projects usually fail because of management mistakes rather than technical mistakes. Risk Management in Software Development Projects focuses on what the practitioner needs to know about risk in the pursuit of delivering software projects. Risk Management in Software Development Projects will help all practicing IT Project Managers and IT Managers understand: * Key components of the risk management process * Current processes and best practices for software risk identification * Techniques of risk analysis * Risk Planning * Management processes and be able to develop the process for various organizations

The Owner's Role in Project Risk Management

The Owner's Role in Project Risk Management PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309181615
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description
Effective risk management is essential for the success of large projects built and operated by the Department of Energy (DOE), particularly for the one-of-a-kind projects that characterize much of its mission. To enhance DOE's risk management efforts, the department asked the NRC to prepare a summary of the most effective practices used by leading owner organizations. The study's primary objective was to provide DOE project managers with a basic understanding of both the project owner's risk management role and effective oversight of those risk management activities delegated to contractors.

Early Warning Signs in Complex Projects

Early Warning Signs in Complex Projects PDF Author: Ole Jonny Klakegg
Publisher: Project Management Institute
ISBN: 1628251697
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Complex projects are often the most high-profile projects within an organization. How can early warning signs be identified and acted upon, so that problems are avoided and projects are successful in delivering the expected value for their owners and other stakeholders? What signals should we look for? Looking for early warning signs takes more than a keen eye. Collaborating with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, Ole Jonny Klakegg, Terry Williams, Derek Walker, Bj&ørn Andersen, and Ole Morten Magnussen have expanded on their research of governance frameworks and guidelines as well as provided interviews with experts and case studies from Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom. This international report identifies early warning signs in highly complex projects and offers tips on how to combat them.

Identifying and Managing Project Risk

Identifying and Managing Project Risk PDF Author: Tom Kendrick
Publisher: Amacom Books
ISBN: 9780814407615
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
"A guide to help project managers determine risk factors throughout every phase of a project." - dust jacket.

Identifying and Managing Project Risk

Identifying and Managing Project Risk PDF Author: Tom Kendrick
Publisher: AMACOM
ISBN: 0814413412
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Winner of the Project Management Institute’s David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award 2010 It’s no wonder that project managers spend so much time focusing their attention on risk identification. Important projects tend to be time constrained, pose huge technical challenges, and suffer from a lack of adequate resources. Identifying and Managing Project Risk, now updated and consistent with the very latest Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)® Guide, takes readers through every phase of a project, showing them how to consider the possible risks involved at every point in the process. Drawing on real-world situations and hundreds of examples, the book outlines proven methods, demonstrating key ideas for project risk planning and showing how to use high-level risk assessment tools. Analyzing aspects such as available resources, project scope, and scheduling, this new edition also explores the growing area of Enterprise Risk Management. Comprehensive and completely up-to-date, this book helps readers determine risk factors thoroughly and decisively...before a project gets derailed.

Practical Schedule Risk Analysis

Practical Schedule Risk Analysis PDF Author: David Hulett
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1317076699
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Project scheduling is required for good project management, and the schedule represents the project plan under a specific set of assumptions, often that it will avoid new risks or even those that have occurred on previous occasions. The typical Critical Path Method (CPM) schedule assumes that the project team knows how long the scheduled activities will take. Yet, the experienced project manager knows that duration values so precisely stated are actually only estimates based on assumptions that could be wrong. A schedule risk analysis explores the implications for the project's schedule of risk to the activity durations and also identifies the most important schedule risks. This analysis, building on and extending CPM scheduling, will result in a more accurate estimate of completion and provide an early opportunity for planning effective risk mitigation actions. Practical Schedule Risk Analysis contains a complete treatment of schedule risk analysis from basic to advanced concepts. The methods are introduced at the simplest level: * Why is the duration uncertain? * And how do we represent this uncertainty with a probability distribution? These are then progressively elaborated: * How does uncertainty of activities along a path lead to more uncertainty of the path's completion date? * How can a schedule with parallel paths be riskier than each of the paths individually? * How can we represent risks about activities that are not in the schedule at all? Culminating in a discussion of the most powerful and advanced capabilities available in current commercial software. Schedule risk analysis is a process that is industry-independent, and the methods explained in this volume have been used by the author with positive effect in such industries as construction, oil and gas, information systems, environmental restoration and aerospace/defense. The result is a book that is not only highly practical; something that people within all types of projects and in all industries can apply themselves; but that is an extraordinarily complete guide to creating and managing a rigorous project schedule.

Risk Management Applications Used to Sustain Quality in Projects

Risk Management Applications Used to Sustain Quality in Projects PDF Author: Abdul Razzak Rumane
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000775445
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
This practical guide covers the steps necessary to sustain quality in a project from start to finish. The book shows how to identify risks at different processes, phases, and stages and offers directions on how to mitigate and reduce risks using analysis, evaluation, and monitoring. Risk Management Applications Used to Sustain Quality in Projects: A Practical Guide focuses on applying risk management principles to manage quality in all project management processes, stages, and phases. The book discusses the potential risks that may occur at the different phases of the project life cycle, their effects on projects, and how to prevent them. It explores all the process elements and activities of risk management and provides steps on how to make the project more qualitative, competitive, and economical. Risk management processes are discussed at each project management processes and project lifecycle phase/stage to help the reader understand how various risks can occur and how to mitigate and reduce them. The main audience for this book is project management professionals, quality managers, systems engineers, construction managers, and risk management professionals as well as industrial engineers, academics, and students.

Risk Analysis in Early Phase of Complex Infrastructure Projects

Risk Analysis in Early Phase of Complex Infrastructure Projects PDF Author: Esra Tepeli
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Infrastructure construction projects are complex with a very long life-cycle, a complex organizational plan, a complex resource management, technical complexities, contractual complexities and macro-environmental factors. The complexity of an infrastructure project leads to the existence of interdependent risks, which are hard to anticipate and control. As the investment is major for these types of projects, the risks and opportunities are critical to the project success or failure, the risk factors need to be identified and analyzed before any decision-making process. While upfront planning is important, not all events and scenarios can be foreseen as the project can take several years to complete and may involve many companies and stakeholders. In this planning stage of the project, a robust risk analysis method is indispensable for identifying and analyzing the major risk and opportunity factors. In this paper, a formalized multi-criteria decision-making process is developed based on a strategic risk analysis in a complex environment: (1) in a very early stage and at a strategic level, (2) before the contracting phase in order to develop a risk allocation plan and negotiate it with the project owner.

Risk Assessment and Management of Water Conservancy Projects

Risk Assessment and Management of Water Conservancy Projects PDF Author: Wei Ge
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832541607
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description