Risk Identification and Mitigation In Agile Software Re-Engineering: A Case Study

Abstract

Legacy software is becoming increasingly common, and many companies nowadays are facing the challenges associated with this phenomenon. In certain circumstances, re-engineering is the only logical way to deal with legacy software. Such projects, by their very nature, are subject to a wide variety of risks. The aim of this study was to begin building the basis of a risk framework that will support future re-engineering projects within Agile (Scrum) environments. An interpretive case study approach has been followed, where the case study was the first phase of a re-engineering process, with the method of analysis being inductive and reflexive Thematic Analysis. The dataset comprises a list of different risks that occurred during the re-engineering process. The risks observed were themed around people, processes, and technology. While technical and procedural risks are discussed in the literature, it was found that the presence of risks in social situations relating to re-engineering has been overlooked. Although these risks do not necessarily have a higher individual impact, they were found to outnumber those encountered in other aspects of the project by a significant factor. Furthermore, the social risks were often either underestimated or not even recognised. It has also been found that Scrum is an appropriate approach to re-engineering projects. Since many of the re-engineering tasks in the case study were unknown at the beginning, the flexibility brought by Scrum was an important factor in the timely and successful mitigation of emerging risks. The first contribution of this study is a comprehensive analysis of identified risks associated with one particular re-engineering project. The potential impact of those risks over a given development phase of the project, along with their actual impact, have been analysed. The second contribution discusses a proposed methodology for managing and mitigating risks in software re-engineering. It is intended that the identified risk categories form the basis of further research into different types of re-engineering projects in order to produce a more generalised framework. It is anticipated that the results presented here will help future project teams to prioritise areas of re-engineering and put adequate risk mitigation into place.