A Structured Approach for Evaluating Risk Impacts in IT Projects

Abstract: Date: 12-June-2008 Authors: Muhammad Saeed – 760721 Västerås – Sweden Mehmood Ziauddin – 830730 Västerås – Sweden Title: A Structured Approach for Evaluating Risk Impacts in IT Projects Introduction: Risk is an integral part of any project and it’s more appropriate to say for IT because it is changing with a very fast pace. Different surveys, reports and researches show astonishing statistics about the risks in IT projects. Through proper risk assessment techniques most of the uncertainties can be reduced while initiating, implementing and improving IT projects. Different authors talk about different risks and different strategies to respond to them. It becomes difficult at times to keep in check all the risks. Often risk management is over hyped, and often it’s totally neglected. Their needs to be a balanced approached in risk management. Problem: How a structured approach will be beneficial for an organization in assessing risk impacts on IT Projects? Purpose: The aim of this report is to develop and analyze a structured approach which will permit an organization in identifying & categorizing risks and measuring their impact on IT Projects. Method: Exploratory research approach is used and data collection is done using secondary sources. Our thesis is qualitative research based. Qualitative research is the one which is not relying on statistical data as compared to quantitative research. Besides our text books and study material, the main source of information was internet databases and university library from where we read different articles, thesis and books. Majority of the material studied was collected from Mälardalen University Library’s online databases like, Elin@Mälardalen, Compendex, Emerald and Ebrary. We also consulted some books which we got by inter-library loan from Mälardalen University. Conclusion: With the help of Remenyi’s approach for categorizing risks and Applegate’s approach of measuring risk impact, we have managed to develop a structured approach and reached a conclusion that proper identification and categorizing of risks can be very beneficial for an organization in numerous ways. This systematic way assists top management, project managers, IT & non IT Personnel is taking preemptive measures for managing risks. The benefits it brings is that it gives an equal understanding within the organization and this structured approach gives an in-depth and clear understanding of the risks associated with IT projects.