Risk Management of Information Systems Development in Distributed Environment

Risk management has been recognized as an effective way to reduce system development failure. Information system development (ISD) is a highly complex and unpredictable activity associated with high risks. With more and more organizations outsource or offshore substantial resources in system development, organizations face up new challenges and risks not common to traditional development models. Classical risk management approaches have relied on tactical, bottom-up analysis, which do not readily scale to distributed environment. Therefore, risk management in distributed environment is becoming a critical area of concern. This paper uses a systemic approach developed by Software Engineering Institute to identify risks of ISD in distributed environment. Four key risk factors were identified from prior literature: objective, preparation, execution, and environment. In addition, the impact of these four risk factors on the success of information system development will also be examined

Co-sourcing in software development offshoring: A case study of risk perception and alleviation

Software development projects are increasingly geographical distributed with offshoring, which introduce complex risks that can lead to project failure. Co-sourcing is a highly integrative and cohesive approach, seen successful, to software development offshoring. However, research of how co-sourcing shapes the perception and alleviation of common offshoring risks is limited. We present a case study of how a certified CMMI-level 5 Danish software supplier approaches these risks in offshore co-sourcing. The paper explains how common offshoring risks are perceived and alleviated when adopting the co-sourcing strategy in a mature (CMMI level 5) software development organization. We found that most of the common offshoring risks were perceived and alleviated in accordance with previous research, with the exception of the task distribution risk area. In this case, high task uncertainty, equivocality, and coupling across sites was perceived more as risk alleviation than risk taking. This perception of task distribution was combined with high attention to the closely interrelated structure and technology components in terms of CMMI and the actors’ cohesion and integration in terms of Scrum

THE IMPACT OF RISK CHECKLISTS ON PROJECT MANAGER\u27S RISK PERCEPTION AND DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

Risk checklists are often used to assist project managers to identify the potential risks in software projects. Previous study found that the checklists can help managers identify more risks, but the number of risks identified doesn’t significantly correlate with managers’ decision. This might because some risk items could play more important role than other risk items in manager’s decision-making process. This paper uses a survey-based research method to investigate the weight of different risk items on project manager’s risk perception and decision-making. This research will be carried out in two phases: 1) Pilot study. A questionnaire will be developed and administrated to college students. The result will be analyzed and research instrument will be modified based on the feedback. 2). Formal study. A group of IT project managers will be recruited and the revised instrument will be sent to them for participation. A detailed research design is presented

Managing Risk Areas in Software Development Offshoring: A CMMI Level 5 Case

Software companies are increasingly offshoring development to countries with high expertise at lower cost. Offshoring involves particular risk areas that, if ignored, increase the likelihood of failure. However, the offshoring client’s maturity level may influence the management of these risk areas. Against this backdrop, we present an interpretive case study on how managers perceive and mitigate the risk areas in software development offshoring with a mature capability maturity model integration (CMMI) level 5 software company as the client. We found that managers perceived and mitigated most of the offshoring risk areas in accordance with the findings of previous research. However, the risk area of task distribution was a notable exception. In this case, managers perceived high task uncertainty, equivocality, and coupling across sites as risk mitigation rather than risk taking. The paper discusses how and why managers perceived and mitigated the risk areas in this way and the implications for theory and practice in software development offshoring

On the Legitimacy of IS as an Independent Discipline: Research that Sets the Field Apart

Motivated by the continuing anxiety discourse within the IS field and the continuing disrespect IS researchers earn from scholars of other management disciplines, this essay discusses six areas in which IS researchers make unique knowledge contributions to management scholarship. More specifically, this essay suggests that information systems development, information systems adoption, organizational information systems innovation, group level resistance to IT implementations, the business value of IT, and Knowledge Management, among others, are all areas in which IS scholars can claim to contribute uniquely to the management body of knowledge. In so doing, this essay provides six robust arguments for IS scholars to concisely justify their field and research – and to be positive about the work they are doing. Perhaps even more importantly, this essay may motivate IS scholars to allocate their resources to topics that help increase the field’s legitimacy

Fight Risk with Risk: Relexivity of Risk and Globalization in IS

In this paper, we address the following research question: “How can we understand the nature of risk in IS projects in the context of globalization?” Based on a case study conducted over a period of two years in a Norwegian hospital on the development and implementation of a Electronic Patient Record (EPR), the paper contributes to the current discussion on the conceptualization of risk in IS projects. Drawing upon the concept of reflexive modernization (Beck 1999) the paper makes two key contributions: firstly, it shows the limits of current risk management approaches in understanding the nature of new risks in IS generated by globalization processes; secondly, it suggest a possible theoretical framework for analyzing such nature. The research question is addressed by providing a historical and contingent analysis of the risk management dynamics emerging from the case