A Survey of Enterprise Software Development Risks in a Flat World

Abstract

COTS-based development and global delivery are two major disrupters in modern software development arena. Economic benefits offered by these disrupters cannot be neglected by organizations of any size. Unfortunately, alongside these benefits are several risk factors, which if ill-managed can cost the organizations both in terms of revenue and time. At Infosys, one of India's leading software services organizations, built upon global delivery model we conducted a study by interviewing representatives from 23 projects to identify risks pertinent to COTS-based development in a global setting. We found 6 frequently occurring risks that will be summarized in this paper.