70% of organisations fail to quantify risk of application failure

Poorly performing applications are costing 72% of companies from £100,000 to £500,000pa, according to system development company Compuware. The firm blames the fact that 70% of companies don’t adequately risk assess new systems and system developments before implementing them. It bases its assertions on research carried out for Compuware among 100 IT directors in large UK firms. Says Sarah Saltzman, technology support manager for quality at Compuware: “Risk should be measured and monitored throughout the development of an application, so that organisations can make go-live decisions based on the amount of risk they are prepared to take.” It’s simple enough: given the scale of testing ideally required, companies need a formal system and a sliding scale for testing, all the way from the most important aspects to the least, so that management can make informed decisions. “Unless companies move towards assessing risk, and focusing testing effort in line with these assessments, then the cost of poor quality applications to the business will only increase,” she says. Saltzman insists that risk management should be a central part of project management, with milestones and reports built in like any other. And she adds that it’s not just relevant to the big projects. “Rolling out changes to existing systems can be very risky: one line of code changed can have a very significant impact. Companies need to look at that and analyse the impact of change carefully.” She accepts that there needs to be a balance between rigorous testing and business agility, but says that risk management and project tools and services from companies like Compuware are alive to the requirement. “It needn’t be too onerous. By identifying risks and testing where you need to, you can actually deploy changes earlier and more successfully.”