An interpretive study of software risk management perspectives.

Abstract

This dissertation addresses risk management in the software development context. The discussion commences with the risks in software development and the necessity for a software risk management process. The emergent discourse is based on the shortfalls in current risk management practices, elaborated in the software risk management literature. This research proposes a framework for a field investigation of risk management in the context of a particular software development organization. It was experimentally tested within several companies. This framework was designed to provide an understanding of the software development risk phenomena from a project manager's perspective and to understand how this perspective affects their perception. This was done with respect to the consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of software risk management as regards its applicability or inapplicability, respectively. This study can be used as a precursor to improving research into the creation of new software risk management frameworks.