risk

Conference Presentations

Project Management Best Practices

Risk management is the process of identifying, addressing, and controlling potential problems before they threaten the success of a software project. This article details tips to help your team plan a successful project.

Karl Wiegers, Process Impact
Integrating Risk Management into Your Project Plans

The goal of risk management is to develop information that supports informed decision-making. In this article you will: review risk management fundamentals, introduce simple quantification methods, discuss special "estimate" risks (cost & schedule), the impact integrating risk mitigation into project plans and share lessons from the real world.

Payson Hall, Catalysis Group Inc
What Can I Do When the Project is in Trouble: A Test Manager's Perspective

Most projects don't get into trouble; they start in trouble. In organizations where problem projects aren't identified early, testing is at the bottom of the hill: test teams get the job of delivering the bad news or "testing in quality." Discover ways to spot trouble and manage the risk before the product gets to test. Look for the early warning signs of missed milestones, moving targets, and management madness.

Esther Derby, Esther Derby Associates, Inc.
Managing Business Dynamics for Software Developers

Managing a software development project is a complex mix of many forces--market expectations, the development process, product legacy, people skills, timelines, and budget. While several of these factors may be independent or even uncontrollable, they need to be factored together for success. This is the ultimate challenge of a development manager. Using several scenarios of market and production evolution, Ram Chillarege illustrates these business dynamics. Learn to manage business dynamics through strategies while avoiding misconceptions and common traps.

Ram Chillarege, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Management of Outsourcing--How to Avoid Common Mistakes

One of the most challenging areas of software management is encountered in the first year after an outsourcing contract is signed. Carol Dekkers discusses the actions that can be taken by both implementation teams to ease the transition and to achieve outsourcing success. Learn of the common mistakes made involving personnel, measurement, and expectations, and obtain recommendations to increase the transition to a successful partnership.

Carol Dekkers, Quality Plus Technologies, Inc.
Usability and Risk Management in a Multi-Developer Context

Driving usability improvement in an organization with more than 100 different software suppliers presents specific Quality Assurance challenges. This presentation describes the steps taken by one organization to meet this challenge. Learn how this approach resulted in a one hundred percent increase in customer satisfaction, a reduction in customer-reported usability problems, and order-of-magnitude reductions in testing time and cost.

Marilyn Valentino, EPRI
Estimation for the Savvy Project Manager

The most critical estimate in the life of a project is the first estimate at project planning or initiation. This presentation explores the significance of the initial project estimate and suggests ways to approach developing this critical estimate. Learn how a savvy project manager can use this estimate to encourage creative collaboration rather than strife among project stakeholders.

Douglas Muir, Software Productivity Centre Inc.
Identifying Testing Priorities Through Risk Analysis

It's impossible to test everything-even in the most trivial of systems. Tight time schedules and shortages of trained testing personnel exacerbate this problem; so do changing priorities, feature creep, and loss of resources. In many companies, test professionals either begin their work on whichever components they encounter first, or the parts they're most familiar with. Unfortunately, these approaches may result in the delivery of a system where the most critical components remain untested. Or, at the very least, critical components are tested later in the lifecycle when there may not be time to fix the problems found. All of this adds to the risk of a project. One way to overcome every one of these challenges is to employ the use of risk analysis. Rick Craig demonstrates the basics of a usable process for assigning testing priorities based on relative risk.

Rick Craig, Software Quality Engineering
Risk Analysis for Web Testing

All Web sites take risks in some areas ... your job is to minimize your company's exposure to these risks. Karen Johnson takes you through a step-by-step analysis of a Web site to determine possible exposure points. By reviewing the functionality and other site considerations, such as supported browsers or anticipated loads, risk areas can be accurately determined. You'll then create categories of testing based on the exposure points you uncover, starting with broad areas such as functional, content, security, load, and performance, and drilling down to test and protect against even minor vulnerabilities.

Karen Johnson, Baxter Healthcare Corporation
Avoiding Project Failure

Let's face facts: Software projects fail more often than they succeed-and nothing a project manager does will ever completely eliminate the possibility of failure. But there are steps an organization and you as a project manager can take to detect problems early and avoid classic mistakes. This presentation is designed for project managers and sponsors who want to reduce their risk of project failure and improve their ability to successfully deliver.

Payson Hall, Catalysis Group, Inc.

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