Risks to Know as a Project Manger
As a new project manager, I want to learn more about the risks associated with IT Projects and the common things within those risks. For background information, an IT project is a project that can include computer technology. Technology is a very useful tool that allows us to solve many problems. It allows us to create options that make certain tasks easier but the creation of these tools can be a tricky process. When creating software and managing that project there can be many different problems that can occur during its development life cycle. As a project manager you serve as a lifeguard to the project. People think of lifeguards to be a person who is a reactionary part of when an incident happens but contrary to that popular belief, lifeguards actually serve as a layer of prevention before something happens. Yes, they are trained to be able to save someone but a lifeguard's main goal is to make sure an incident never happens. That is why when we were kids we always had those lifeguards blowing their loud whistles at us. Project managers are the same way. Our goal as a project manager is to foresee the issues that can occur during a project’s life cycle. The bad part about this is, many issues can happen. Creating software can have many hills to conquer and bugs to crush. Just let the joke about how fixing one bug in a software can create five more sink in. As the project manager it is helpful to know about the risks going in so later on you can avoid a potential issue from occurring. Throughout this blog post I want to go through the common risks associated with a software development project so that one day you can be equipped with creating a smooth software development process. The best way to start this process is to look at the precautionary risks.
Market Risk
When creating a software you will have to put your economic brained thinking caps on. Are the tools that your software provides needed in the time you are at. Is there a market for your software and will people actually want it? Supply and demand still affect a project heavily even though it is not a real world object. You need to make money somehow and if no one needs your software or if it is such a niche need you will have created something for nothing. All that time and money wasted on a project that no one will care about. Think about all the resources that could have been used for something that everyone needs. You also need to know what you and your company are good at, is your team good at creating the software you need to make? Does everyone understand what it needs and can work together to make something in a short amount of time? Or will a competitor be able to make the same thing better and in a faster amount of time. Thinking through these things will save a lot of money and time.
Financial Risk
Financial risk falls with market risk because they both risk the same thing, money. You need to be asking yourself can your company afford to create this software in the projected time frame or could you go potentially bankrupt before the software is finished. How much should you tell your stakeholders it will cost when creating the software. You also have to make sure that you know your stakeholders and how invested they are. Do you know they have enough money to fund the project? It would be a very bad scenario if no one has money in the middle of the project.
Technology Risk
These days as we start to grow and develop technology to be smarter and smarter this risk starts to weaken day by day. Can most people be able to run your software or will people who have the best specs available to the market be the only ones able to run the software. For example, in 2021 we have lots of technology available that is super powerful but if you have a software that is only supported by a Nvidia RTX 3000 series GPU no one will be able to use your software with all the shortages and increased prices we are seeing right now. For example, back then I bet many game companies would love to create games with amazing, high fidelity graphics that look so realistic but if those graphics were easier to obtain for everyone then there is a good chance that people would make amazing games but if your computer can only handle pixel art sprites then there is no point at making a game with realistic graphics.
People Risk
You also have to look at the team you have at hand, how capable is your team of creating a software that meets the stakeholders standards. If you have a team who just learned Kotlin for Android Development then it probably would be a good time to either let an opportunity pass by if they are wanting a fully functional Android app.
Structure/Process Risk
Structure and Process risk can seem a lot like people risk. You have to think how many people on your team are capable of doing the project and how many teams can you use during the development process to get the software complete. Do you need ten teams to complete a project in 2 months but only have two available at the moment? Does your project map have enough resources to complete it in the needed time?
Knowing Risks on IT Projects Correlate with Agile Methodology
The main focus on Agile is to be able to get a project done with the least amount of issues possible. Its obvious that knowing the risk factors going into a project can help in the long run. When you know all the risks involved with a project you can plan accordingly avoiding any problems that you could potentially face down the line. Agile allows people to change course of action quickly and having an idea of what goes wrong in a development process can allow people to avoid mistakes in the midst of change.
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