An integrative model linking risk, risk management and project performance: Support from Indian software projects

Abstract

Software development organizations across the globe are concerned about the high rate of project failures. Two constructs which are hypothesized to have significant impact on project outcome are risk and risk management. Risk points to an aspect of a development task, process or environment which, if ignored, tends to adversely affect the project performance. Risk management is defined as the mechanism for identifying, addressing and eliminating software risk items before they become threats to project success. Based on the data collected from 527 software development projects in India, this research develops an integrated model linking these three constructs. Structural Equation Modeling was used to develop and validate the models. The models show how the impact of risk management on project outcome may be mediated by risk.