WeDRisk : an approach to managing web and distributed software development risks

Web and distributed software developments are risky and face specific challenges like time zone and cultural differences. These challenges have resulted in new risks and risk management needs. In this thesis, a systematic review of existing software risk management approaches was conducted to investigate their ability to satisfy the risk management needs of web and distributed developments. The review identifies a number of weaknesses in existing approaches. Examples are the lack of consideration for web and distributed factors and lack of preparation for atypical risks. A new approach called WeDRisk is introduced to manage the risks from project, process and product perspectives. The WeDRisk approach addresses the weaknesses of existing approaches to risk management, which are less able to deal with the specific challenges of web and distributed development. A key part of the approach is flexibility to deal with the rapid evolution which is typical of such developments. This flexibility is achieved by customizing the risk management and providing a method for coping with atypical risks. WeDRisk also provides an improved risk estimation equation to consider web and distributed factors. The novel aspects of the WeDRisk approach were subjected to a series of evaluation cycles, including peer review, two controlled experiments, expert evaluation and a case study. In addition to a number of improvement suggestions, the evaluation results illustrate how WeDRisk is useful, understandable, flexible, easy to use, and able to satisfy many web and distributed development risk management needs.