Software risk management practice in Ethiopia

Abstract

In a country like Ethiopia, where information and communication systems are in the early stage of development, software projects may face several challenges. Projects may suffer from schedule or budget overrun or unmet specifications, leading to failure. Risk is one of the factors that challenges project performance, and even causes failure. Hence, risk management helps project managers to control the effect of risks. However, risk management appears to be the least practiced component of project management. This study aims at assessing the risk management practice in the Ethiopian software projects. This study was undertaken using a survey conducted on 45 banks, insurance companies and UN agency offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The findings of the study suggest that formal risk management is not widely practiced in Ethiopian software projects. Only 16% of organisations reported that they applied one or more documented formal risk management techniques. Overall, 67% of organisations were found to exercise one or more risk management process steps. Though the risk management practice was found to be reasonably high, the proportion of organisations that carry out all the risk management process phases, through formal or informal methods, was only 27%, showing that risk management practice in Ethiopia cannot be considered adequate. The study thus recommends that Ethiopian software project managers should give more emphasis for risk management in their project management. The risk items that Ethiopian software projects face most were found to be technical complexity risks, with the highest risk item being use of new technology. This may be an indication that project managers should give adequate attention to the risks arising from technical complexity. No statistically significant relationship was observed between formal risk management and project success, and also between risk management practice and project success.