Development of Web Software for the Generation of Software Risk Management Plans

This article presents the design and development of a web system to support the generation of risk management plans for software development, aimed at emerging technology development organizations, new and established entrepreneurs, in the micro and small sector. companies in the area. The main objective of this system is to improve the chances of success in the development and implementation of new software products of these companies, through a series of support tools, such as the use of expert coaching, collaborative work and project management, based on in web technology. The system was implemented using state-of-the-art web technologies and was developed using an incremental evolutionary method, similar to SCRUM. Our system was successfully tested at a local software development company. This shows that our system is an efficient tool for generating risk management plans for software development.

INTRODUCTION:

Risk management is a very important process in software project development. Usually, the team in charge does not do anything about risks until something bad happens. But there are many factors that can alter the plans that will affect the execution of the project, whether changes in the requirements occur due to new customer needs, changes in the work team that affect the project scheduling or pressure from the competition. that can be a threat to the normal development of the project (Sommerville, 2005). A study conducted by KLCI in 268 software development organizations around the world, indicated that the vast majority of participants value the application of risk management practices, in which 97% of respondents answered that they have procedures in place. to identify and assess risk; and 80% identified preventing and avoiding problems as a primary benefit (Sarigiannidis, & Chatzoglou, 2011). In addition, the results indicated that 3% of the participating organizations do not use any method to manage risk, 18% do so informally managing risks as they appear, while 37% do so by discussing with the risk management team. job. On the other hand, 28% of organizations use periodic procedures to identify and quantify risks, and only 14% use a formal method.

One of the most common reasons for using an informal approach is that organizations are young or immature, that is, they are just beginning to develop software, so they prefer to involve all team members to help identify and evaluate the risks. On the other hand, those who use a periodic approach argue that it is an essential step for the successful development of the project, since it keeps the client informed and controls costs.

On the other hand, the study carried out by the Standish Group (Chaos Report) in 2015 (Hastie and Wojewoda, 2016) provides a vision of the state of the software development industry. 50,000 projects were considered from around the world ranging from small improvements to massive systems and re-engineering implementations. The results of this study show that the percentage of successful projects reaches 29%, on the other hand the failed ones occupy 19%, that is, these projects never materialized or were simply a failure. On the other hand, 52% of the projects may have been successful or failed but during the development of the project, they presented with more inconveniences and problems. The results of the previous year of this study (Johnson, 2015) also indicated the factors by which the project tended to fail. Many of these coincide with risk factors that can be a problem but are not measured before starting a project. These may be the change in requirements, little user participation, new technologies, among others.

Thus, according to what is presented in these studies, there are many factors that cause a project to fail, mainly due to a lack of early detection of the risks that can affect the normal development of a software project. From the foregoing, the benefits of having a software tool to support risk management in the development of IT projects is evident. Thus, this tool would manage the risks of a project from the early stages and throughout the life cycle and, in this way, each event that could occur during analysis, design, coding, testing and maintenance could be proactively managed. of the software. In addition, the risk plans could be adjusted to a specific standard, such as IEEE 1540-2001 or higher.

The existence of risk always entails two characteristics: the uncertainty whether or not something unforeseen will occur, or what kind of consequence it will bring if it becomes real (Wong et al., 2010). In a software project, risks are considered a threat to those who make up the work team, to the project and the software that is running. This is why when analyzing risks, it must be defined to which categories they belong. Three categories are presented below (Pressman, 2002): (i) Project risks: They threaten project planning, delaying it and increasing costs. There are problems of lack of staff and resources, problems with customers and requirements; (ii) Technical or product risks: They threaten the quality and development of the software. Problems occur in design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. The lack of necessary technology is also a factor; and (iii) Business risks: They threaten the viability of the software. There are problems associated with the real need for the product, that is, building something excellent and no one requires it.

The importance of risk management lies mainly in minimizing the uncertainty that occurs in each software project, since many times the requirements are confusing and change as the project progresses, there are errors when estimating times and resources necessary. The key is to act proactively and anticipate eventual risks that could jeopardize the project. If they do occur, contingency plans must be created to avoid them or reduce the effect they may have on the project.