Software Risk Management

Master 2024/2025

Type: Compulsory course (System and Software Engineering)

Area of studies: Software Engineering

Delivered by: School of Software Engineering

Where: Faculty of Computer Science

When: 2 year, 1, 2 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Волков Денис Владимирович

Master’s programme: Software and Systems Engineering

Language: English

ECTS credits: 6

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Abstract

The training course ‘Software Risk management’ is concerned with theories, methods and tools for professional risk management during software development process. It is based on the training and research materials of Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Guide to Software Engineering by IEEE (SWEBOK), PMBOK study by Project Management Institute (PMI), Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) - Risk Management discipline for operations, which contains important background information for risk management usage in IT operations and process environment. Modern risk management concerns all aspects of software development: quality, team members, requirements and specification, contractors and 3rd parties, cost, resources. To be effective, team members need to understand the activities performed at each stage in the development cycle and apply appropriate risk management activities. In this course, students analyze, design, implement risk management tools and techniques that meet the software development objective through a simulated case study. They gain hands-on experience performing each role within the risk management process using all the core concepts and skills necessary to engineer and maintain a successful program with limited and predictable risks. Software development and technology projects continue to challenge IT – many projects are unsuccessful or squander precisions resources through poor quality results as a consequence of lack of risk management procedures. The course knowledge is applicable in nearly all software development and IT organizations and examples illustrate situations familiar to e-businesses, service providers, dot com and information technology companies. Initially the course is aimed at students taking undergraduate and graduate courses and at software engineers in commerce and industry. It may be used in general software engineering courses or in courses such as advanced programming, software specification, and software design or management. Also the course is based on the “Analysis and mitigation of risks in complex software programs” book and materials developed by Professor V.V. Lipaev and implemented into SU-HSE being a part of an innovative educational program. The course is compliant with ISO standards and CMM/CMMI standards for industrial software development. The training materials follow the Software Engineering Education Knowledge (SEEK) knowledge insights, described in Software Engineering paper book. The training structure meets the requirements of Russian and international standards of software development and the global professional standard ‘Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) ISO/IEC TR 19759 IEEE’. The course is aimed at studying the major current approaches to risk management in software engineering processes: identification, analysis and assessment, response planning, monitoring and control. It describes the methods, platforms, technologies and tools, which are applied for all stages of life cycle and covers software risk management at each stage.

Learning Objectives

The main objective of the training course is to examine and discuss with students fundamentals and principles of Risk Management (RM) during software development projects, get familiar with common methods and standards of RM, development and evolution of complex risk assessment and evaluation techniques, analyze trends in available risk management software based on its functionality.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Be able to analyze key problem areas for IT projects
Become familiar with some key standards
Become familiar with the fundamentals of Risk Management in IT area, IT specifics and modern trends
Become familiar with the key standards
Distinguish international and local standards in IT area and Risk Management
Distinguish international and local standards in IT area and Risk Management
Get acquainted with basic terminology and glossary
Get familiar with Risk Taxonomy approach
Know the global IT project failure statistics, its methodology and root causes
Learn different perspectives of IT project stakeholders and their viewpoints on success
Learn Risk Breakdown Structure principles – a graphical view of classification
To be able to apply management actions to main outsourcing risks
To be able to calculate risk exposure and rank risks according to their priorities.
To be able to choose the appropriate action
To be able to create risk reporting documentation with accordance to team needs - fulfill the risk report for the most priority risk
To be able to discuss the key challenges of IT area
To be able to identify risks for the given situation with different methods
To be familiar with Monte Carlo Modeling principles
To become familiar with main methodologies and key principles in Information Security
To create Risk Severity Matrix
To define preventive and corrective actions
To distinguish key IT project stakeholders and their interests
To distinguish various risk factors
To get an overview of available CASE tools and applications for risk management
To get familiar with different response actions
To know how to define risk probability and risk impact
To know how to structure identified risks in a risk register form
To know the basis of risk scenario analysis
To know the basis of risk sensitivity analysis
To know the key functional requirements to the software tool in Risk Management
To know the process of IT audit, main steps and results in each stage
To know the roles and responsibilities of Risk Manager and Risk owner/Risk Responsible
To perform quantitative risk analysis by using Decision Tree technique and calculating Estimated Monetary Value (EMV).
To understand the purpose and goals of IT audit
To understand the specifics of information security, key IT threats and vulnerabilities
Understand how to avoid problem areas and change focus to strengths
Understand the key outsourcing areat in IT projects and key risks in each area
Understand the necessitmy of using standards and gaps
Understand the necessity of using classifications and basic principles based on risk causes and risk factors
Understand the necessity of using standards and gaps

Course Contents

Risk management fundamentals. Specifics of IT industry and projects
Overview of the main standards and methodologies on RM: MSF, RUP, XP, PMBoK
Key success factors and problem areas in IT
Key risk factors: quality improvement and requirements tracking
Risk Taxonomy/ classification. Risk factors
Risk management process: Identification
Qualitative assessment
Qualitative/mathematical assessment and modeling
Risk management process: risk response and control
Risks in IT outsourcing
Risks and information security
Organization of risk management. Team management
IT Risk management Audit
Software Tools in risk management
Preparation for final exam – course review and Q&A session

Assessment Elements

Final Exam (E)
Home assignment 1 (HA1)
Home assignment 2 (HA2)

Interim Assessment

2024/2025 2nd module
0.6 * Final Exam (E) + 0.2 * Home assignment 1 (HA1) + 0.2 * Home assignment 2 (HA2)

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Информатизация бизнеса. Управление рисками : учебник для вузов, Авдошин, С. М., 2011

Recommended Additional Bibliography

9783319429663 - Zykov, Sergey V. - Crisis Management for Software Development and Knowledge Transfer - 2016 - Springer International Publishing - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1261466 - nlebk - 1261466
Tayntor, C. B. (2007). Six Sigma Software Development (Vol. Second edition). Boca Raton: Auerbach Publications. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=934768
Методические основы управления ИТ - проектами : учебник для вузов, Грекул, В. И., 2011
Организация и технологии защиты информации : обнаружение и предотвращение информационных атак в автоматизированных системах предприятий: учеб. пособие, Сердюк, В. А., 2011

Authors

Butskaia Evgeniia Aleksandrovna
PESOTSKAYA ELENA YUREVNA

Course Syllabus