Identifying key risks in software project management in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Software development projects still fail to be delivered on time, within budget, and with desired quality. One area of concentration in software project management that has developed to solve these problems is risk management, which attempts to assess and then control the risks that precipitate them. The objectives of this research are to identify key risks in software project management and to identify the most widely used risk identification methods. The probability of occurrence of risk events and their impact on project deliverables and success are considered for this. The research methodology is to arrive at a conceptual model, operationalize the model and to collect data for quantitative analysis. Data analysis is used to determine key risks in software project management. Percentage comparison analysis method is used to determine most widely used risk identification methods in Sri Lanka. A survey was carried out to collect data from large and medium scale software development companies in Sri Lanka. Based on the analysis, it appears that requirement/scope and client/stakeholders are the main internal risk sources in software project management. "Software project's scope is not firm and keeps expanding" is identified as the key risk item,. "Use the past experience" is the most widely used risk identification method in Sri Lanka. The scope of this research is limited to only selective internal risk sources in software projects.