ABSTRACT
Systems development projects, also known as infrastructure or IT projects, aim to improve or replace all or part of a business system. The system could be a business process control system or a financial/information/management system. The project might involve designing a new bespoke information system, or purchasing and implementing an off the shelf software solution. In many IT projects there may be multiple decision points such that stages can be managed and the project changed or aborted if risks appear too high, so as to outweigh the benefits of the project. It seems almost too obvious to state, but having a senior manager identified as the project sponsor who will champion the project and gain top management commitment to it can mean this risk is avoided, but does not always happen in IT projects. Key risk attributes were drawn from a discussion that started with the participants' own risk factors identified for business development projects.
