SERUM - Software Engineering Risk: Understanding and Management
Des Greer · Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) · 1997
Software development is often characterised by problems with projects over-running their schedule or by failure to satisfy user requirements for functionality and quality. It follows therefore that risk management should be part of any effective software development process. One approach is to identify risks explicitly at various stages in the software process and then determine how best to respond to them. An alternative strategy is to handle some (perhaps most) of the significant risks covertly by building risk reduction techniques into the development process. This paper argues that the overall risk management process should make use of both forms of risk management, with initial emphasis placed on implicit risk management as that is where the greatest return for effort is likely to be obtained. A particular approach, SERUM, is described which considers risk from initial business analysis up to and beyond software delivery. The approach makes use of two particular techniques: (i) Checkland and Wilson’s Soft Systems Methodology (SSM); and (ii) Gilb’s Evolutionary Delivery. In each case the implicit risk reduction contribution of the technique is identified and then the further advantage of an explicit risk treatment explored. 1.