An Evaluation of Software Project Risk Management in South Africa

Abstract

Global research indicates that the success rate of software projects worldwide is currently very low, and has been low for the past few decades. The application of risk management has improved the success rate of software projects in the developed world. This study investigated whether the success rate of software projects in South Africa is also low, and whether risk management might improve these success rates. The results indicate that the average success rate of software projects in South Africa is indeed very low, and that software projects in South Africa often experience the same risks as in the developed world. It was also found that, where risk management is applied, software projects produce better results than software projects with no risk management. The majority of South African software companies use ad hoc internally developed risk management procedures rather than formalised procedures. OPSOMMINGDie suksestempo van sagteware ontwikkelingsprojekte oor die wêreld is tans laag en volg die tendens reeds vir 'n aantal dekades. Die toepassing van projek risikobestuur het die suksestempo vir sagtware projekte wel verbeter in ontwikkelde lande. Hierdie studie het 'n ondersoek gedoen om te bepaal of die suksestempo van sagteware projekte in Suid Afrika ook laag is, en of die toepassing van risikobestuur vir sagteware projekte die suksestempo kan verbeter. Die resultate van die studie het aangetoon dat die gemiddelde suksestempo van sagteware projekte in Suid Afrika wel baie laag is, en dat die projekte dikwels soorgelyke risiko's ervaar as in die ontwikkelde wêreld. Die studie het ook bevind dat sagteware projekte waar risikobestuur toegepas is beter presteer het as projekte sonder risikobestuur. Die studie het ook aangedui dat die meerderheid sagteware maatskappye in Suid Afrika gebruik maak van ad hoc risikobestuur prosedures wat intern ontwikkel is, en dus nie formele prosedures gebruik nie.

Exploring Issues in Agile Requirements Engineering in the South African Software Industry

“…However, little has been said about the approach and its adoption challenges in the South African context. In addition, de Wet and Visser (2013) suggest that the adequacy and suitability of agile methods is questionable, arguing that these methods originated from Western or European countries, and were designed to address risks in their respective settings. The unfortunate fact is that, with regard to the adoption of agile methods in the South African context, the literature is limited (Noruwana & Tanner, 2012).…”

“…The success rate of completing software projects to specifications in this country is low (De Wet & Visser, 2013). It has been suggested (De Lucia & Qusef, 2010) that 30% of the problems that take place in the development of challenging systems relate to the requirements phases.…”

Risk management analysis in Scrum software projects

“…It provides a set of good practices aimed at fast delivery value to the customers and can simplify the work process, reduce development time, and enhance organizational transparency (Thamhain, 2013). However, risk management, which can reduce uncertainty and increase the chances of success in software projects (Charette, 2005;SEI, 2010;Chowdhury and Arefeen, 2011;Wet and Visser, 2013), is conducted mostly in an implicit way in projects that use agile methodologies (Nelson et al, 2008;Nyfjord and Kajko-Mattsson, 2008;Khatri et al, 2014;Moran, 2014). Nyfjord and Kajko-Mattsson (2008) have performed a comparative analysis between traditional and agile risk management approaches.…”

“…r Use of risk management in software projects-Generally, it is observed that there exists a lack of risk management in software projects using Scrum (Hijazi et al, 2012;Tomanek and Juricek, 2015), and software projects in general (Bannerman, 2008;Junior et al, 2012;Singh et al, 2012). r Software project success-Risk management can increase the chance of success in software projects (SEI, 2010;Chowdhury and Arefeen, 2011;Bannerman, 2015) by reducing their uncertainties and chances of failure (Wet and Visser, 2013). On the other hand, the absence of risk management procedures is one of the reasons for the failure of these projects (Charette, 2005;Dey et al, 2007;Lu et al, 2010).…”

Risk Management in Scrum Projects: A Bibliometric Study

“…Other studies have also identified the absence or inadequate application of risk management in software projects [11], Singh Sharma & Chandra, 2012; Bannerman, 2008) and in projects using the Scrum framework [10], [39]. Risk management is able to reduce uncertainty and increase the possibility of success of the projects [1], [34] [35], [40], however, is treated implicitly in projects using agile methodologies [2], [7], [13], [41]. Considering the importance of the topic presented, this article provides a study of scientific publications on the topic Risk Management in Scrum Projects Authors are with Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Brazil (E-mails: breno.tavares@inatel.br , {sanches, adlerdiniz}@unifei.edu.br).…”