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Indy Risk School
System/Product Complexity
It has long been understood that the complexity of the software or product being developed is a key factor in risk, estimation and sizing. For software projects, borrowing from Function Points, Capers Jones and Barry Boehm [op. cit.], the complexity and therefore the risk of a system can generally be evaluated by considering its data complexity i.e. how many inputs, outputs, enquiries, logical internal files and shared files are involved in the system.
Other factors which affect system complexity and therefore risk are:
- function and algorithm complexity;
- complex control, decision exception and/or mathematical operations;
- level of programming language;
- significant impact on jobs;
- performance requirements;
- high data volume, fast response time, CPU, etc.;
- technology requirements;
- substantial use of tailored or special hardware/software.
By evaluating the intrinsic software complexity, the person or team undertaking risk assessment can predict the risk associated with the product i.e. is it Low, Medium or High risk? It is important that this assessment is undertaken only by considering the software not the team or target environment categories. It is useful to imagine a Museum of Modern Projects; which displayed all systems in Perspex cubes for public appreciation [or horror!]. In this context, you consider your system in comparison with others that you or your organization has undertaken.