IT Software Risk Management

What is Risk?
In order to manage risks we have to understand what a risk is. In my view the best definition is that given by Larry Krantz. According to Robert Tusler (1996) Larry basically defines a risk as “a combination of constraint and uncertainty”. Every project will face constraints, and also uncertainty. The solution on over coming any type of obstacles is to minimize the risk in the project either by eliminating constraints or by finding and reducing uncertainty.
The Internet Company Software System A few years back my company, The Internet Company, decided to set up a new software that would combine all department software’s into one. The ultimate goal of this project was to make sure that information was flowing correctly between the Human Resources Department, Payroll Department, and our company home office software. Like Larry Krantz stated every project is going to face some type of risks. The first step in risk management is to identify the possible risks and to assess the consequences of the risks. This is an important step, as one must identify the project risk inputs. Risk assessment identifies existing risks, analyzes risks, and then orders them in a priority from highest to lowest.
Identifying and Prioritizing Risks
The main technique that was used in other to identify risk was looking at historical data from one of our subsidiaries that had just completed a similar project. This helped us get a basic idea of what kind of risks we would be facing. We also consulted the project manager of the project, who had over 15 years experience working on IT software projects. Some of the risks that were identified included the following: 1. Unrealistic schedule and budget; 2. Personnel shortfall; 3. Two softwares are not compatible with each other; 4. Developing the wrong user interface; 5.