A Fuzzy method for qualitative analysis of risks in software development projects

Organizations need an effective risk management to improve quality in project management. In this work we presented a fuzzy logic based system to execute qualitative analysis of risks, prioritizing risk monitoring, control processes and risk responses. Our main objective was to rank the risks in a software development project and measure the project's exposure to risks, using two metrics based on fuzzy values: index of risks exposure and risk punctuations. We proceeded a case study in a software development project at an IT company, and the results indicate that our proposed fuzzy method increased the possibilities of project's manager decision making, because of values scope assumed by linguistic variables and possible rules combination. The presented metrics improved the sensibility in detection, classification, responses planning and risks control. Our proposed method was considered useful and preferable in relation to current solutions adopted by managers.