Managing layers of risk: Uncertainty in large development programs combining agile software development and traditional project management

TL;DR

This paper explores how large-scale agile projects manage uncertainty at different levels, combining insights from traditional and agile risk management practices to improve understanding of risk handling in complex development environments.

Contribution

It provides an exploratory analysis of risk management strategies across multiple levels in large agile projects, an area previously under-studied.

Findings

Identifies key risk management practices at project and work package levels

Highlights differences between agile and traditional risk management approaches

Suggests integrated strategies for managing uncertainty in large projects

Abstract

How risks are managed implicitly and explicitly at multiple levels of agile projects has not been extensively studied and there is a need to investigate how risk management can be used in large agile projects. This is the objective of this exploratory study which investigates the following research question: How does a large software/hardware development project using agile practices manage uncertainty at project/subproject and work package levels?