There are numerous categories that software risks fall under. The following list and descriptions are the categories of risks that are typical to appear and affect a software team:
1: Estimation & Scheduling Risks
This category encompasses risks that are related to both estimation and scheduling. Numerous issues can arise with estimation, especially in regards to budget. In addition, scheduling is an important category as perfectly sticking to deadlines and a schedule is impossible in a software project. This is because
numerous factors that can change at any time (such as staff size, technical issues, and requirement issues) can suddenly occur and will cause the schedule to be rewritten and changed.
2: Technical Risks
There are numerous risks related to technology that can occur in a software project. For example, the customer's requirements and demands may be to advanced for the systems that are implemented in the team member's company.
Another risk that is technical is if the interface that the client is asking for to be implemented has not been thoroughly tested yet.
3: Staffing Risks
Choosing the right kind of staff for a software project is very important, otherwise issues and risks associated with this category will most likely arise. This category covers risks such as staff size changing, staff members asking for a higher pay, and staff members being unproductive. The staff having the right kinds of skills
in order to effectively carry out the project is a large concern as well. There are numerous other categories that may cause staffing risks, such as requirements specification, as a larger and changing workload may cause the staff to become unmotivated and possibly cause them to leave the project due to the intense demand of the work.
4: Requirements Specification
Clients and stakeholders usually change their requirements throughout a software project, which is understandable as a concept that they intially wanted can change after seeing it visually and after seeing the software's layout and execution. A risk in this factor will most likely have a domino effect,
as it will most likely also cause issues and risks to occur in the estimation and scheduling category. In addition a larger workload may also cause issues within the staff.
5: Business Impact
This category includes all risks that are related to and affect a commercial business. Some examples of business impact risks are the software product possibly negatively affecting the company revenue, the number of customers that will use the product, and governmental constraints on the creation and
implementation of the project.