1. Risk Management for Technology Projects
Geography 463 : GIS Workshop
May

2. The Basics of Project Management for Technology Projects; Part 3 Presentation Outline
The Software Engineering /Application Development Profession
Risk Management Principles and Practices
Case Study: Risk Management in a GIS application

3. Themes for tonight’s presentation:
There are Software Engineering skills, beyond the latest programming languages, that are timeless and valuable.
Each step in the Software Development Lifecycle has its own risks and a number of ways to address them.

4. Section One Software Development Careers
Ten Basic Knowledge Areas
Construx Inc Capability Levels
Activities that promote professional career development

5. Ten basic Knowledge Areas for Software Developers (SWEBOK….www.swebok.org)
Requirements Gathering
Software Design
Construction
Testing
Maintenance

6. Ten basic Knowledge Areas for Software Developers (continued)
Configuration Management
Project Management
Software Engineering Management
Software Engineering Tools and Methods
Software Quality

7. A few words on Testing
Definition: dynamic verification of the behavior of a program
Structural Testing: to ensure test cases really test all lines of code
Functional Testing: Ensure that for each requirement, there is at least one test case

8. Software Developer Capability Levels (at Construx Inc)
Apprentice: Basic work in a knowledge area
Practitioner: Effective, independent worker
Leader: Can lead others in knowledge area
Master: Guru, teacher and enabler

9. Job Skills Profiles Chart of Knowledge Areas and Capability Levels
Defines Job Roles by looking at Profiles
Career development plans are created by doing GAP analysis

10. Professional Career Development Strategies
Direct Experience
Readings
Classes
Certifications
Industry Participation

11. Summary General Knowledge Areas will:
remain fairly constant
many are not “outsource-able”
Effective Professional Development Requires:
Book Knowledge…why you do things
Mentoring..to guide one along the way
Experience…How you do things successfully and more efficiently & effectively

12. Section Two Risk Management Principles and Practices
“The Opposite of Risk Management is Reckless Management”
Steve Tockey, Principal Consultant, Construx Software

13. Terminology
Risk: potential for realization of unwanted, adverse consequences to human life, health, property, or the environment (Society for Risk Analysis).
Risk: The possibility of suffering loss
Risk Events: The actualization of a hazard, threat, or accident.

14. Terminology (continued)
Impact: The negative consequences of an event / accident / occurrence
Likelihood: The probability based on historical patterns / frequency that an event w/ a specific impact will occur
Risk Signature: An activity, program, or asset’s level of risk arrived at by combining likelihood and impact

15. More Terminology
Control Measures: Actions taken, contingency plans developed or measures taken to reduce the level of risk
Risk Appetite: The level of risk the organization is willing to take

16. Managing Risk
Goal: Establish a culture within an organization, or on a project team, that understand and continuously identifies, analyzes, manages and communicates risk at all levels of the organization, or all phases of a project.

17. Managing Risk Inventory Assess and Prioritize Analyze
Implement Control Measures
Monitor, Audit, and Review
Report

18. Analysis Phase Define the universe and inventory its elements
Assess risk by Category (Legal, Environmental, Safety, Public relations..)
Review possible control measures
Recommend Alternatives

19. Possible Control Measures
Accepting, Sharing, or Divesting of a risk
Policies
Procedures
Training
New or improved equipment (or tools)
Change in processes

20. Risk in Software Project
Source: Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute….
Loss in a development project describes the impact to the project which could result in:
Diminished Product Quality
Increased Costs
Delayed Completion or Failure

21. Risk and Opportunity
Many software projects have goals to do things in new and different ways
Few opportunities can be realized without risk
Risk must be identified and constantly balanced against potential benefits
Project Managers live for Risk Management

22. Risk Management in Software Engineering Projects
Assess continuously what can go wrong
Determine what risks are important enough to deal with
Implement strategies to deal with individual and systematic risks
Communicate risks at all levels

23. Risk Principles: a framework for effective control of risks
Global Perspective / Big Picture
Forward-looking View
Open Communications
Integrated Management
Continuous Process
Shared Product Vision
Teamwork

24. Summary: Continuous Risk Management
Identify: search for & locate risks first
Analyze: Transform risk into decision-making information. Evaluate impacts, liklihood. Classify and prioritize risks
Plan: Translate risk information into decisions and actions
Track: monitor risk indicators & mitigation actions
Control: Correct based on metrics

25. Using GIS to Manage Risk

27. Section Three Risk Management Case Study
Adapting Seattle’s GIS presence on the world wide web in the post “Sept 11” world