Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects

by Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister

Overview

The authors, consultants in risk and management, show how to identify and embrace worthwhile risks in software development and offer strategies for common risks that software projects face, such as schedule flaws, requirements inflation, and specification breakdown. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780133492231
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	07/15/2013
Series:	Dorset House eBooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tom Demarco and Timothy Lister are principals of The Atlantic Systems Guild ( www.systemsguild.com), a consulting firm specializing in the complex processes of system building, with particular emphasis on the human dimension. Together, they have lectured, written, and consulted internationally since 1979 on management, estimating, productivity, and corporate culture.

 

Tom is the author or coauthor of nine books on subjects ranging from development methods to organizational function and dysfunction, as well as two novels and a book of short stories. His consulting practice focuses primarily on expert witness work, balanced against the occasional project and team consulting assignment. For the past three years, he has been teaching undergraduate ethics at the University of Maine. He lives with his wife, Sally O. Smyth, in Camden, Maine.

 

Tim divides his time among consulting, teaching, and writing. Based in Manhattan, Tim is coauthor, with Tom DeMarco, of Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior (Dorset House, 2008), written with four other principals of The Atlantic Systems Guild, and Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams,Third Edition (Addison-Wesley, 2013). He is a member of the IEEE, the ACM, and the Cutter IT Trends Council, and is a Cutter Fellow.

Table of Contents

	Prologue: The Ethics of Belief	3
Part I	Why	7
1.	Running Toward Risk	9
2.	Risk Management Is Project Management for Adults	15
3.	Denver International Airport Reconsidered	22
4.	The Case for Risk Management	29
Part II	Why Not	35
5.	The Case Against Risk Management	37
6.	The Onus of Uncertainty	42
7.	Luck	46
Part III	How	51
8.	Quantifying Uncertainty	53
9.	Mechanics of Risk Management	60
10.	Risk Management Prescription	73
11.	Back to Basics	80
12.	Tools and Procedures	91
13.	Core Risks of Software Projects	101
14.	A Defined Process for Risk Discovery	113
15.	Risk Management Dynamics	121
16.	Incrementalism for Risk Mitigation	128
17.	The Ultimate Risk Mitigation Strategy	138
Part IV	How Much	143
18.	Value Quantification	147
19.	Value Is Uncertain, Too	151
20.	Sensitivity Analysis	156
21.	Value Offsets Risk	160
22.	Refining the Risk Management Prescription	164
Part V	Whether or Not	169
23.	Test for Risk Management	171
Appendix A	The Ethics of Belief, Part 1	175
Appendix B	Risk Template	181
	References	183
	Index	191