Title: Estimating operational risk indices for software services outsourcing industry: a case

Authors: J. Dasgupta, R.P. Mohanty

Addresses: ITM – BIT Collaborative Research Program, Patni Computer Systems Limited, SEEPZ, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 096, India. ' ITM Group of Institutions, B.S.E.L. Tech Park, 704-712, Sector 30 A, Vashi, Navi Mumbai 400 705, India

Abstract: Software Services Outsourcing (SSO) industry has grown rapidly in the last few decades in undertaking software projects. Projects are grouped with several other projects according to some similarity, for example same customer, same domain, same geography, or some other factor(s). When an SSO enterprise undertakes concurrent execution of multiple projects characterised by size, complexity, resource requirements, etc. in multiple locations, it is necessary to estimate |generic risk factors|. Although generic risk factors are used in medical/actuarial science, so far they have not been applied in SSO industry and therefore have not been mandated in the existing IT-related standards; which currently focus on project-specific risk factors. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of generic risk factors by developing a computational and workflow system framework. Such a framework may be used to upgrade existing international standards on project risk management.

Keywords: software services outsourcing; software projects; project risk management; project outsourcing; operational risk indices; project-specific risk indices; generic risk indices; enterprise risk index; computational systems; workflow systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2010.034459

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2010 Vol.6 No.1, pp.43 - 61

Published online: 05 Aug 2010 *

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