#19 – SOFTWARE IS RISKY BUSINESS – LINDA WESTFALL

Linda Westfall HeadshotThere are many risks involved in creating high quality software on time and within budget.  With ever-increasing software complexity, increasing demands for bigger and better products, and even decreasing time to market, the software industry is a high-risk business.

When software teams don’t manage these risks, they leave their projects vulnerable to factors that can cause major rework, major cost or schedule over-runs, delivered product that don’t match their intended use requirements (for example, product that have safety, security, usability or functionality gap) or other project failures.  Continue reading

#18 – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RISK APPETITE AND RISK THRESHOLD – MARK MOORE

Mark MooreWe deal with appetites and thresholds every day, both personally and professionally.  Project risk management is no exception and knowing your appetite and threshold may save your project a lot of grief.

When managing project risks (or any risks for that matter), I’ve found that there are always two versions of appetite and threshold.  The first is what I’ll call the “perceived” level and the second is the “actual” level.  This may sound like splitting hairs, but I’ve found multiple times on projects that they both do exist and always come into play at some point.

Continue reading

#19 – LAUNCHING SCI-FI INTO AEROSPACE

Quote

turbyfillNASA Press Release:

“2013 NASA Advanced Technology Phase I Concepts Selected For Study

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected 12 proposals for study under Phase I of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, which aims to turn science fiction into fact. Continue reading

#19 – JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE REALLY OUT TO GET YOU, DOESN’T MEAN YOU AREN’T PARANOID – DR. CAROLYN TURBYFILL

turbyfillIn my work as a software architect and security expert, I always consider boundary conditions such as malicious input as opposed to normal behavior.  I also consider innocuous errors that could lead to disastrous consequences.

I immediately applied this approach to the NSA Prism program and came up with 3 scenarios:

  1. Innocent mistake and courteous response that could make me a person of interest or worse.
  2. Message embedded in a collect call request.
  3. A business or vengeance opportunity. Continue reading

#19 – QUALITY AND RISK IN THE COCKPIT – J ARMANDO JERONYMO

J Armondo JeronymoIntegration of risk and quality management is loved by some and hated by others. For most of us, it may be a matter of judgment whether and how much a system should or is able to be managed out of silos and of departmental boxes. Another part of life that different people loves or hates is flying. I love it. Continue reading