In the “real world” software development does not occur in a vacuum. In the risk management exercise you and your group members focused on the development risks that might impact the success of your project. Now it’s time to broaden your view. If your group project were developed in a fortune 500 company as a product, a number of factors would be taken into account to ensure the success of the project. These include the concerns of marketing, sales, support, and upper management.
You work in the software division of a fortune 500 company. The company has developed a checkpoint process for all software development projects. At the outset of a software development project a series of checkpoints are set at key points during development and delivery of the software. At each checkpoint a representative from each of the parties involved in the software development project come together to review the current status of the project, assess any risks that have impacted the project, and make any modifications necessary to the project’s staffing, schedule, or scope of work.
You are going to represent upper management’s concerns during the checkpoint review. The most important concern for you is the bottom line. This project is only valuable if it has the potential for profit. In addition, the current economic downturn has forced the company to freeze all hiring. You cannot hire additional people to avoid problems with a project. You have also been made aware of the ambitious list of features that will be expected from the development team for the product’s next release. This does not allow for much room in the schedule or workload of the development team in the next release. During the checkpoint review you must weigh the concerns of the development team along with those of marketing, sales, and support to come up with a list of the top 10 risks to the project at hand, create avoidance/mitigation strategies for each, and make recommendations to ensure the success of the project. These recommendations can include continuing with the project as is or modify the staffing, schedule, or scope of the project.