K. Lyytinen et al., ATTENTION SHAPING AND SOFTWARE RISK - A CATEGORICAL ANALYSIS OF 4 CLASSICAL RISK MANAGEMENT APPROACHES, Information systems research, 9(3), 1998, pp. 233-255
This paper examines software risk management in a novel way, emphasizi
ng the ways in which managers address software risks through sequentia
l attention shaping and intervention. Software risks are interpreted a
s incongruent states within a socio-technical model of organizational
change that includes task, structure, technology, and actors. Such inc
ongruence can lead to failures in developing or implementing the syste
m and thus to major losses. Based on this model we synthesize a set of
software risk factors and risk resolution techniques, which cover the
socio-technical components and their interactions. We use the model t
o analyze how four classical risk management approaches-McFarlan's por
tfolio approach, Davis' contingency approach, Boehm's software risk ap
proach, and Alter's and Ginzberg's implementation approach-shape manag
erial attention. This analysis shows that the four approaches differ s
ignificantly in their view of the manager's role and possible actions.
We advise managers to be aware of the limitations of each approach an
d to combine them to orchestrate comprehensive risk management practic
es in a context. Overall, the paper provides a new interpretation of s
oftware risk management which goes beyond a narrow system rationalism
by suggesting a contingent, contextual, and multivariate view of softw
are development.