17-03-2014, 09:13 PM
Abstract—Due to the increasing of cooperation with
global, cultural differences are specified as work factors
in distributed projects. This paper aims at identifying
quantitatively the cross cultural risk assessment. The
cultural differences; language, communication style,
time, and development method are examined as critical
risk factors that affect the software development project.
The mathematical model has been designed to quantify
the effect of cultural differences of team members. Begin
with the fundamental formula of the risk assessment,
“Risk = Probability of the event × Losses associated
with that event”, the probability is estimated from the
average number of conflicts in software development
team, by means of the Poisson’s process; the losses of
each factor was estimated in term of their levels. The
output from the model can be used in the risk
management to increase achievements of the project.
Keywords - Risk assessment, model, cross-cultural,
software project, cultural differences
I. INTRODUCTION
12
Risk Management is absolutely important in the
management of most projects, including Information
Technology (IT) [1]. Ignored risk may cause the project
failure. Uncertainty of any activities relevant to the
software development process constitutes the risk, so the
project managers who are responsible for the
achievement of the project need reliable methods to
assess the risk of their projects. Key risk factors for IT
software development efforts are identified [2, 3] and
then examined under the dimensions of the degree of
being distributed [4].
Since the software industry has grown rapidly with
the increasing application of information technology and
co-operations with globalization, outsourcing is
becoming popular.
In a software development project there are usually
team members with at least 2 nationalities. The cultural
differences of personnel in the teams become a key risk
factor of the project. As a result, assessing the crosscultural
risk is essential for the project management.
This paper focuses on designing a mathematical model
to quantitatively assess the degree of cross cultural risk
impact on IT software development. It is expected that
1 Master student, Software Engineer Program
2 Associate Professor, Director Center of Excellence in Software
Engineering
the result of this research efforts might pilot the valid
cross cultural risk assessment tools in the future.
global, cultural differences are specified as work factors
in distributed projects. This paper aims at identifying
quantitatively the cross cultural risk assessment. The
cultural differences; language, communication style,
time, and development method are examined as critical
risk factors that affect the software development project.
The mathematical model has been designed to quantify
the effect of cultural differences of team members. Begin
with the fundamental formula of the risk assessment,
“Risk = Probability of the event × Losses associated
with that event”, the probability is estimated from the
average number of conflicts in software development
team, by means of the Poisson’s process; the losses of
each factor was estimated in term of their levels. The
output from the model can be used in the risk
management to increase achievements of the project.
Keywords - Risk assessment, model, cross-cultural,
software project, cultural differences
I. INTRODUCTION
12
Risk Management is absolutely important in the
management of most projects, including Information
Technology (IT) [1]. Ignored risk may cause the project
failure. Uncertainty of any activities relevant to the
software development process constitutes the risk, so the
project managers who are responsible for the
achievement of the project need reliable methods to
assess the risk of their projects. Key risk factors for IT
software development efforts are identified [2, 3] and
then examined under the dimensions of the degree of
being distributed [4].
Since the software industry has grown rapidly with
the increasing application of information technology and
co-operations with globalization, outsourcing is
becoming popular.
In a software development project there are usually
team members with at least 2 nationalities. The cultural
differences of personnel in the teams become a key risk
factor of the project. As a result, assessing the crosscultural
risk is essential for the project management.
This paper focuses on designing a mathematical model
to quantitatively assess the degree of cross cultural risk
impact on IT software development. It is expected that
1 Master student, Software Engineer Program
2 Associate Professor, Director Center of Excellence in Software
Engineering
the result of this research efforts might pilot the valid
cross cultural risk assessment tools in the future.