Practical Software Project Management from Risk Perspective
Kiran Marri, Group Test Manager, Infosys Technologies
Jayanthi Desikan, Group Test Manager, Infosys Technologies
The goal of making profits for the stakeholder is primary objective of any business organization. This is true for IT service organizations as well. Projects executed in IT companies can be one of the key factors that differentiate between successful IT organization and not-that-successful IT organizations. Most of the IT service organizations run several hundreds of projects. The project management is the core factor to determine the success factor. The traditional approach to view project management can be in terms of 8 key focus areas (Scope, Time, Human Resource, Cost, Quality, Procurement, and Risk management). Though risk management is one of the focus areas, it is very important to understand that Risk management could be the only factor to decide between success and failure of the project. From the IT context, if this concept is reworded, every project activity done or implemented within the software development life cycle has to be viewed from the risk perspective, then the chances of minimizing the risks is highly predictable. Software projects have risks associated in all the phases and it is the responsibility of the managers to ensure that these are identified, controlled, and tracked in systematic manner. Risk identification and proactive planning are critical to control the project risks.
The objective of this tutorial is to bring out the practitioner aspect of risk management in IT projects. The tutorial is explained with situations and case studies (Banking & Financial projects, Life Sciences Projects) and designed with interactive perspective. The session will also cover a case study of a QA project and how things went into high risk due to poor project management practices. This example can help to relate the list of “Things not to do”. Finally the session outlines the different tools and techniques that are followed in matured organizations, and provides tips on implementing the same.
The tutorial is designed for the following target audience:
- Senior Managers - To help them to identify risk during project reviews, analyzing risk response plan, evaluating mitigation strategies
- Manager – To help them understand risks, challenges, quantitative analysis, important tools and techniques
- Leads & Developers – overview of risk management
Workshop/Tutorial Content & Overview:
- Objectives & Context Setting
- Current Issues & Challenges in Software Projects
- Quick orientation on pre-requisites for Risk Management
- Introduction to Risk management process and definitions
- A Case Study on faulty management
- Stages of Risk Management – PMI approach
- Risk process by software lifecycle stages
- How to measure risk in projects – CMMi Level 5 approach
- Useful Metrics for measuring risk
- Tools & Techniques in risk management
- Practical tips & Best practices
- Workshop with 1 real like case studies (45 minutes) or Quiz
- Review of answers for the Quizzes/ Workshop exercise
- Summarization
- Q&A
About the Speakers
Kiran Marri PMP® is currently working as a Group Test Manager at Infosys Technology Limited, Bangalore (NASDAQ: Infy www.infosys.com ). He is associated with the testing practice - Independent Validation Solutions Unit, managing clients in Banking & Finance service domain. He has extensive software experience in the field of Life sciences, Biomedical applications, Banking & Finance domain, and Retail domain. He has over 13 years of experience in the IT industry covering project management, delivery and client relationship roles. He has published & presented several papers in conferences in the field of project management, software testing, clinical data management and biomedical engineering.
Kiran has won the best paper award in the PML Conference in 2004. His current research interest and publications are primarily in Project Management and Quantitative Test Management. He received his Bachelors in Electronics & Communication engineering from Madras University in 1993 and a Masters by Research in Biomedical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai in 1996. Kiran is also PMP certified. Kiran can be contacted at kirankmr@infosys.com
Tutorial/Workshop experience
- Kiran Marri, “Compliance and Risk”, a workshop training program held in July-Sep 2006 and trained close to 200+ Project Managers, Senior Managers and Delivery Managers at Infosys. Rating of the course & workshop (4.45/5)
- Kiran Marri, “Being a Test Manager”, a Tutorial at STEP-IN 2008 Tutorial, Jan 2008, covered over 50 professionals from IT industry. Rating of the course (4.2/5)
- Kiran Marri, “Software Risk Management – The Right Way”, 1 day workshop at The Software Process Engineering Conference, Singapore, Aug 2008
Jayanthi Desikan PMP® is a Group Test Manager at Infosys Technology Limited (NASDAQ: Infy). She is part of the Independent Validation Solutions Business Unit managing projects in the Banking and Financial Service Domain. She has extensive experience in Retail and Banking & Financial Domain. She has over 14 years of experience in IT industry which includes project management and client relationship experience. She has even played the role of Process consultant in CMMI Gap assessment for one of the Financial Clients.
She received her Bachelors in Instrumentation Technology from Bangalore University in 1994. She is also a certified PMP. Jayanthi can be contacted at jayanthid@infosys.com
Tutorial/Workshop experience
- ‘Workshop on Quality Processes’ for Test Managers and Test Analysts in Aug 2007 and Oct 2007 and trained around 50 Managers/Analysts.