Improving risk management: moving from risk elimination to risk avoidance

This study has examined software reliability using a risk management framework to analyze popular risk management models with regard to their emphasis on risk avoidance. Too often, risk reduction occurs late in the software development life cycle when changes are costly and less effective. We suggest that early risk avoidance techniques, like the cleanroom software development process and its sub-process of software inspections, leads to superior products. Our approach is different from the current mainstream approach of testing to eliminate errors because we propose using risk models that emphasize preventive risk management early in development. We argue that the use of risk avoidance leads to benefits that far outweigh the cost of implementation. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.