Perspectives on E-Business Software Project Risk

Kenneth Stevens, Sue Fowell
2003 Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems  
The assessment and management of risks associated with software projects is a perennial problem and has received considerable attention in the IS literature. A number of recent studies have found that e-business projects differ from more traditional development projects and these differences may have implications for software project risk. This paper reports the findings of a study that sought to identify these project and risk differences. The study involved a 'roundtable' of CIO's and senior
more » ... S managers of leading financial institutions. The study identifies a number of key differences in e -business development projects, including: broader scope and reach of e-business applications, changes in the development outcomes to smaller and more modularised components and a marked increase in the diversity of stakeholders. Key software project risk changes identified include: risk associated with branding and reputation risk (these are now being addressed at the software project level), a marked increase in the risk associated with software integration and addressing stakeholder diversity (such as requirements risk). The study also identified a trend towards rationalization of e-business offerings. This trend and the changes in risk have considerable implications for the ways in which organizations assess and manage the risks associated with e-business software development.
dblp:conf/pacis/StevensF03 fatcat:6xmxh7me4rgr7l752e4gmnxtlm