Describe the process of building a risk table in software engineering?

Answer 1

A risk table a.k.a. risk database is a list of all the risks that could affect your software project.

A risk is an event that is not guaranteed to happen (i.e. not 100%) that if triggered would affect your project positively or negatively. Most of the time when people discuss risks in software projects they are assuming that the risk is negative.

If the risk event is triggered, i.e. comes to pass, then there is a severity associated with that event. Risks severity is typically low, medium, high, or catastrophic.

You may have a strategy that would mitigate the risk. Mitigating strategies are invoked after a risk has occurredto reduce the severity of the outcome.

The risk table will at least list the following for each row:

• Risk description
• Probability
• Severity
• Mitigation strategies
• Strategies to reduce the probability

Example of one line of the risk table:

• Description: Chief architect quits during project development
• Probability: Low
• Severity: Catastrophic
• Mitigation strategy:
  • Identify developer with best architecture skills to work with chief architect
  • Identify recruiters who can find qualified architects quickly
• Strategy to reduce probability of trigger
  • Make sure chief architect is compensated correctly
  • Make sure that the architect has good working conditions

Typical risks include:

• Schedule risk
• Key personnel risk
• Requirements risk (i.e. that the requirements are incomplete or inconsistent)
• Learning curve risk (i.e. that your resources learn new things slower than expected)
• Technical risk

Answer 2

In software engineering there are a number of model, SDLC models . For risk analysis we have spiral model that could estimate the risk.