E-MailRisk Management for Software: Learning to Contain, Mitigate, and Manage the Uncertainties of Software Development
- General Overview:
-
Building and maintaining software is a risky
business. Since software permeates and controls so
much of the present-day enterprise (and its
products), lateness, cost excess, and failure to
perform can have far-reaching consequences. A
common response to such risk is to ignore it
entirely. We justify this as "positive attitude,"
the heart and soul of a Can-Do management
philosophy. But when real risks turn into real
problems and send our projects down in flames, we
can see that our past "positive attitude" was
little more than Denial. There must be a better
way.
Planning the core activities, the must-be-dones of software development, is a necessary but not sufficient beginning. Since projects never run exactly to optimal plan, we also need Risk Management. Risk Management is project management for adults. It focuses your attention constructively on the very aspects that, if ignored, could lead to project debacle.
A strategy of risk aversion leads us to become more and more efficient and doing things that are less and less worth doing. The projects that deliver real benefit are bound to be full of risk. Instead of running away from risk, we need to school ourselves to run toward it, but very, very carefully.
Since high benefit endeavors are always risky, we have to develop ways to discover the lurking risks, estimate their impact, optimize our response, and monitor for change. These are the essential skills of Risk Management.
-
Leader: Tim Lister
- Workshop Goals:
-
The purpose of this seminar is to prepare
participants to apply the budding discipline of
Risk Management to software efforts. They will
learn to identify and quantify the specific
uncertainties that threaten success. For each
uncertainty so identified, participants will learn
to contain, mitigate, or eliminate its
impact.
- Intended Audience:
-
Software managers and senior developers, and anyone
sharing responsibility for success in the presence
of risk.
- Outline:
-
OVERTURE
- The link between risk and opportunity.
- Creating a no-fault attitude toward risk.
- Managing software projects by managing risks.
- Risk aversion and building a risk base.
- Role of the postmortem.
- Example: Risks of Denver International Airport.
-
THE HOW-TO'S OF RISK MANAGEMENT
- Building a census of risks.
- Separating resultant and root causal risks.
- Object and quantitative analysis of risk.
- Exposure calculation and tracking for transitions.
- Mitigation strategies.
- Simple scheme for risk declaration.
-
PRE-EMPTING RISKS
- Three steps to risk discovery.
- Roles during the discovery process.
- Performing backward root cause analysis.
- Making risk discovery safe for all hands.
- Alternate strategies.
-
UNDERPINNINGS
- Defining and calculating exposure for risks in sets.
- Time and cost exposure.
- Interpreting exposure as an indication of project health.
- Modified binary and non-binary risk declaration scheme.
- A modified syntax of risk declaration.
-
TOOLS AND PROCEDURES
- Spreadsheet methods.
- VBA tools.
- Starter toolkit for risk management.
-
MAJOR RISKS AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM
- The common risks of software development efforts, quantified and applied.
- The beginners' Risk Management database.
- Sources of tailored risk data.
-
CONFLICT AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
- Building conflict detection and resolution skills.
- Common conflict scenarios.
- Negotiation and mediation.
- Leading from a position of no power.
- Coping with the risks of risk identification.
- Using risk analysis to tailor project plans.
- Safety issues, risk management, and process improvement.
-
A DYNAMIC OF RISK MANAGEMENT
- For more information on bringing this workshop to your organization, contact Dennis Crowley by phone at +1 781 641 5125, by fax at +1 781 648 1950, or by e-mail at sales@cutter.com.