Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects

14. A Defined Process for Risk Discovery

Core risks are not the only ones you need to worry about. There may well be risks particular to your project that have to be figured into your risk equation. For example, there may be one key player whose departure could be disastrous to the project, an important user who might defect and choose to go his own way, or a vendor whose nonperformance could have ugly consequences.

Once you’ve identified and quantified these risks, they can be managed just like the others. But getting them out on the table can be a problem. The culture of our organizations sometimes makes it impossible to talk about a really worrisome risk. We are like a primitive tribe that tries to hold the devil at bay by refusing to say ...