How risky is software engineering?

Answer 1

Any task is risky when you do not know what you are doing. Put the average person in a fighter jet and the jet will crash and burn, you need specific training to be able to fly a fighter jet.

Risk in software engineering comes from different sources:

• Personnel that are not properly trained
  • Business analysts that do not know how to capture requirements
  • Developers that do not understand how to estimate tasks or layout complex requirements
  • Project managers that don't understand dependencies
  • Executives that don't understand project sizing
• Domain that is not well understood by the organization

Software development is not risky when all personnel (executives, developers, project managers, business analysts, etc) are properly trained and the domain that the software is being built for is well understood.

However if the domain is not well understood or there are personnel that are not properly trained then software development becomes risky.