Risk management of information systems development in distributed environment

Risk management has been recognized as an effective way to reduce system development failure. Information system development (ISD) is a highly complex and unpredictable activity associated with high risks. With more and more organizations outsource or offshore substantial resources in system development, organizations face up new challenges and risks not common to traditional development models. Classical risk management approaches have relied on tactical, bottomup analysis, which do not readily scale to distributed environment. Therefore, risk management in distributed environment is becoming a critical area of concern. This paper uses a systemic approach developed by Software Engineering Institute to identify risks of ISD in distributed environment. Four key risk factors were identified from prior literature: objective, preparation, execution, and environment. In addition, the impact of these four risk factors on the success of information system development will also be examined.