How to Integrate Risk Management Into Programmer Jobs
Project managers (PMs) are responsible for risk planning and risk management usually through the vehicle of a project schedule. The information used to build a realistic schedule with integrated risk management and to assess progress must come from the programmers and developers. Programmers assist in integrated risk management by providing experience-based data on the complexity and resource requirements needed to accomplish project tasks and by honest communication with project managers about status, plans, and issues.
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Things You'll Need
- Project requirements
- Task or work breakdown
- Level of effort analysis simulations (optional)
- Historical project performance and lessons learned
- Project scheduling software
Instructions
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Understand the requirements. What the customer wants built and what the organization agrees to provide drive the project schedule. It is essential to understand what the customer means by requirements such as, "easy to use" or "integrated with existing data" in terms that drive the amount of code programmers need to write.
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Break general requirements down into small tasks that work together to meet the requirement. Sometimes called the work breakdown structure, the process of decomposing requirements into general and detailed design tasks requires communication between management and programmers.
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Create an estimate of level of effort at a detailed task level. The level of effort includes identifying the person-hours required to complete the task by programmers with specific levels of expertise. If the programmers are not at the required level of expertise, schedule estimates should reflect training or coming-up-to-speed time as part of risk management.
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Consider other potential risks that should be integrated into risk management planning. Brainstorm with the team scenarios or risks that could jeopardize achieving the project schedule. If a risk event is likely to occur, programmers should account for those in estimates.
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Use computer simulations and historical data to improve programmer's estimates on level of effort and project risks. Programmers should evaluate lessons learned on previous projects and apply those to calculating risks in the current effort.
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Link schedule tasks to their dependencies. If Task C cannot begin until Tasks A and B are completed, then programmers should identify successful completion of Tasks A and B as a risk for meeting the Task C schedule.
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Accommodate within the risks to be managed any task or resource not under the control of the project manager including hiring new programmers, acquiring materials, or software components that are out-sourced.
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Update the programmer's project schedule with status information weekly. Manage long-term schedule risk by reviewing and revising the plan at least quarterly. Use software tools such as Gantt charts, spreadsheets, Microsoft Project, or Oracle's Scheduler and Primavera to create a predictive schedule and monitor project status.
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