The Art of Agile Development: Risk Management

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in 99 words

Risk management allows you to make and meet commitments.

Manage common risks with risk multipliers. Manage project-specific risks by brainstorming disasters and their causes. Create mitigation and contingency plans for serious risks and define unambiguous triggers for taking action.

Combine risk multipliers with project-specific risks to project your chances of meeting commitments, and report those probabilties as "commitments" and "stretch goals." Lower your risk and improve projections by including slack in every iteration and getting stories "done done".

Remember that success is more than meeting commitments. Sometimes it's better to delay delivery and create a better product.

Examples

Use Risk Management to Make Solid Commitments

Estimate Inflation: A Cautionary Tale

Section Outline

  • Risk Management
  • A Generic Risk-Management Plan
  • Project-Specific Risks
  • Sidebar: Monitoring Risks
  • How to Make a Release Commitment
  • Sidebar: Predicting Release Dates
  • Success over Schedule
  • When Your Commitment Isn't Good Enough
  • Questions
    • What should we tell our stakeholders about risks?
    • Your risk multipliers are too high. Can I use a lower multiplier?
    • We're using a scopeboxed plan, and our stakeholders want a single delivery date rather than a risk-based range. What should we do?
  • Results
  • Contraindications
  • Alternatives
  • Further Reading

Full Text

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