An empirical analysis of risk components and performance on software projects

Risk management and performance enhancement have always been the focus of software project management studies. The present paper shows the findings from an empirical study based on 115 software projects on analyzing the probability of occurrence and impact of the six dimensions comprising 27 software risks on project performance. The MANOVA analysis revealed that the probability of occurrence and composite impact have significant differences on six risk dimensions. Moreover, it indicated that no association between the probability of occurrence and composite impact among the six risk dimensions exists and hence, it is a crucial consideration for project managers when deciding the suitable risk management strategy. A pattern analysis of risks across high, medium, and low-performance software projects also showed that (1) the "requirement" risk dimension is the primary area among the six risk dimensions regardless of whether the project performance belongs to high, medium, or low; (2) for medium-performance software projects, project managers, aside from giving importance to "requirement risk", must also continually monitor and control the "planning and control" and the "project complexity" risks so that the project performance can be improved; and, (3) improper management of the "team", "requirement", and "planning and control" risks are the primary factors contributing to a low-performance project. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.