Exploring the Potential Failure Modes in the Software Development Process

Abstract

This study was conducted to contribute to the practice of risk management in software development project by identifying other important risk dimension that was overlooked in the literature. The focus is on identification of risky potential failure modes in the Software Development Process. To achieve this objective, an exploratory case study involving 15 purposefully selected software development practitioners from 5 software organizations in Abuja Nigeria was conducted to identify and suggest the likely causal factors of the potential failure modes that may exist in the 5 studied stages of the SDP. Multiple research instruments like focus group discussion, audio/video tapes, post-mortem analysis of artefacts were used in this research to gather the required data. The method used to analyse the collected data collected was based on the Miles and Huberman (1994) method of analyzing qualitative data. The findings of this study revealed that the risky potential failure modes that exist in the studied stages of the SDP relatively vary in
nature and possess different causal factors characterized with specific inherent symptoms. The relative information about the risky potential failure modes in the SDP is expected to expand project managers understanding of other important risk dimension that can adversely influence project outcome. The study suggested a further qualitativestudy on the research findings to assess the risk factors associated with the identified potential failure modes that will inform project managers of their likely effect on project outcome.