Software is constantly evolving, and it’s complex to build and maintain. As a result, software development risks are part of the business.
In the software development industry, over 70% of projects fail due to poor planning, unreliable teams, inexperienced developers, inconsistent communication, and more. If this is your first software project, that number can be daunting. If your project has already failed and you’re looking for a second chance, you already know the project risks you’re facing.
The development process doesn’t have to be intimidating when you are educated on the risks of software development projects and have partnered with a reliable development team that can help you with risk management.
Let’s take a look at what you should know before diving into your next project.
What Is Risk in Software Development?
Software development is risky considering the potential problems you may encounter during the course of a software project. Pitfalls in the process decrease the likelihood of project success and increase the possibility of the development team or client suffering loss of resources with little to no reward. Risks in software development can take on many forms and can lead to many different issues for you or your software team.
With risk, it’s always best to be proactive rather than retroactive. That’s why risk management is so important. Rather than relying on guesswork and crisis management, you should identify and mitigate the risk from the beginning.
Common Types of Software Risk
All software projects face similar risks to their success. Whether they are related to planning, security, or testing, knowing the common types of software risk can help you establish risk management, so you can identify and avoid them in software development projects in the future.
Lack of Trust and Ownership
If a software development team doesn’t have clear project team roles and processes in place, it poses some internal risks.
A lack of ownership will lead to confusion among team members as to who is responsible for which parts of a project. This also frequently causes a lack of trust between teammates or between IT and the business.
As a result, project quality may take a hit, deadlines may be missed, and issues may go unnoticed. That’s why it’s to your benefit to build a strong team and define project roles from the start.
Poor Project Management
As with any project, poor project management is a risk to success in the software development process. Poor project management can take many different forms.
Whether it’s a lack of scheduling and planning, poor communication among team members, or an inability to stay on track with the timeline, a project that is led poorly is unlikely to make deadlines, stay on budget, or produce sufficient ROI for the client.
All software development teams should take advantage of project management tools and reliable communication methods to stay on the same page during project development. If they don’t, they risk having multiple team members on the same task or having no developer assigned to a high-priority task.
For large or complex projects, consider adding more project managers to spearhead scheduling and communication, and help the team to stay aware of possible issues with the software project throughout the project development lifecycle.
Failure to Establish Expectations
One of the biggest mistakes a software team and new client can make is not setting clearly defined and realistic expectations.
Without these expectations, project teams will struggle to correctly prioritize tasks, decreasing efficiency and costing more time and money by the end of the project. Without proper prioritization of tasks and deadlines, you risk an unhappy client and confused developers. Unclear expectations from the business ensures the software development team will be unable to produce the deliverables the way that the client wanted.
To avoid these risks in software development, set up a series of introductory planning meetings between the development team, project managers, and the client. During the meetings, discuss budgeting, key features, deadlines, and any other factors that are important to the software development project’s success.
This is a good way to get everyone on the same page and kick start good projects and risk management early on in the development process.
Poor Budgeting
Defining a clear budget is often an important part of planning for a new software development project. Once a budget is set, the client and development team can define the project scope, determining what features can and can’t fit within the project.
Poor budgeting can be the result of many things. Perhaps the budget was too flexible, estimations were incorrect, or someone gave into project scope creep.
Scope creep refers to the continuous growth or changes to the project’s scope, which can often be done unknowingly. It can happen when a client wants to add or change features without considering the extra time and money it will cost them, or it could be the result of developers adding features and functionalities that the client didn’t ask for.
Poor budgeting is risky, as it can quickly lead to an unsatisfied client, missed deadlines, or even an unfinished project if the funds run out before the software development project is complete.
Insufficient Cybersecurity
Every software program needs to consider some kind of cybersecurity in their risk management, but the type and the level of cybersecurity will vary depending on the client’s needs. Insufficient cybersecurity in software may look like the inability to:
- Keep user information confidential
- Secure company data
- Stay up to date with the latest security guidelines and regulations
- Meet special compliance if necessary, such as HIPAA or other government regulations
You want to discuss cybersecurity during the planning of a software project, so it can be baked into the plans from the beginning.
Cybersecurity risks often go unnoticed when there is a lack of consistent or appropriate testing done during and after development. With thorough, directed testing, such technical risks can often be mitigated before they become a real problem.
Incompatibility with Existing Systems
While some clients are looking for enterprise level software solutions, others want a new software application that works with their existing systems.
In some instances, the new software is useless to the client if it can’t support or connect to their other applications. This is why it’s essential for the project development team to be aware of these accommodations at the start. Does the new software need to use an API with existing third-party services? Do we have to consider existing hardware on the IoT? Do we need to make use of data that’s collected and stored in a separate system?
As long as the software development team understands how the software they’re building will need to interact with other applications, this is one of the risks in software development that should be easy to avoid.
How to Prevent and Identify Software Risks
Now that we’ve identified some of the most common risks in software development, you’re probably wondering how you can prevent them with risk management.
Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that you’ll encounter risks and other barriers to success on your software development project. However, the best and most effective way to avoid software risks is with proper planning and communication from the beginning to the end of a software project.
Many risks in software development are easily avoided with a focus on ongoing communication, visibility, and transparency.
To identify these risks and prepare for them ahead of time, there are a few things you can do:
- Build a great software development project team and clearly define the roles so everyone knows what they are responsible for. Allow the business stakeholders and technical teams to work closely together to understand the project vision and how they will measure success.
- Emphasize open communication so you can catch any potential problems before they eat up your budget and cause missed deadlines.
- Invest time and money into quality assurance testing. Testing your software at every stage of the project helps you identity technical risks with enough time to have minimal negative impact on the overall project.
Mitigate Risk With a Software Development Partner
While risks in software development are inevitable and some issues are unavoidable, you can still ensure the smoothest software project possible by partnering with the right software development company.
Geneca focuses on partnership driven by visibility and communication. Many clients continue to build software with us after their initial project, which is a testament to our commitment, adaptability, and risk management. We have the experience and expertise to avoid common risks, and we test our software constantly to identify issues quickly.
If you’re ready to discuss your software development project, contact us today to see if we’re the right fit for you.