Defining Indicators for Risk Assessment in Software Development Projects

The usage of indicators acts in both strategic and tactical levels, it is effective for optimization of processes and also supports managerial decisions. Despite the relevance of risk management in software projects, it is in fact still usually overlooked by the organizations that develop software. One reason for this fact is that the concept of risk is abstract and subjective, and its management does not bring apparent immediate practical result. Differently, for example, in the financial market, where the risk management is consolidated and widely applied, and it is currently a need for the companies that work in this field. Briefly, risk management practices just became effectively consolidated in the financial market field when the uncertainties became measurable. In this context, this paper aims to define and propose indicators that are specific for environments of software projects in order to support risk assessment activities – risk identification and risk analysis. To achieve this objective, we first developed a systematic mapping study in order to collect evidences about metrics, indicators and relevant information for risk assessment. These findings were combined with the identification of measurable risk factors, providing, thus, a set of categorized indicators for software development environments.