A Framework of Risk in Global IT Projects and Mitigation Strategies from Service-Oriented Architecture

Abstract

Global Information Technology (IT) projects span multiple locations that are typically employing different practices, adhering to different standards, and using different technologies – at the same time operating in highly diverse cultures. Differences such as these are prevalent factors that increase risk on global IT projects. Further, they are prone to changing continuously over the course of a project, with the consequence that risk becomes highly unpredictable and dynamic. This chapter proposes a framework to characterize risks within the people-process-technology-external elements of a global IT project. The framework gives particular consideration to risks that arise from interactions of multiplicities within and between those elements (i.e. dynamic risks). The principles of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are adopted to propose specific strategies for mitigation of these dynamic risks. Two case studies further illustrate how those strategies can mitigate the risks.