"ContentsIntroduction .................................................................................................................................................. 33 Risk factors: ................................................................................................................................................ 3Lack of Required Knowledge/Skills ............................................................................................................... 3Inadequate Resources.................................................................................................................................. 4Lack of top management commitment ........................................................................................................ 4Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 IntroductionIn software project management along with performance improvement, risk management plays asubstantial role. Identifying various risk factors involves analysing the likelihood of each riskand its impact on each phase of project development life cycle. This paper mainly deals with 39risk factors identified across various steps in project development ranging from critical to minorin terms of its priority / severity. Each risk exhibits a certain pattern, which when recognized atits earlier stage helps to mitigate its effect on project development activities to a greater extent.Project downfall does not happen abruptly, so the 39 risk factors discussed in this document canbe used as valid indicators. These risk factors are termed as Information Technology risks whichimply that these risks affect at both technological level and business process level, hence need tobe dealt with proper attention.3 Risk factors: Lack of Required Knowledge/Skills (2006 – Leon A Kappelman)Technical expertise of the members involved in a project is measured as the first constraint tohandle any novel or complex technology in a project. When project members lack requiredknowledge, then it is the responsibility of project management to ensure that they are acquired atthe right time. Improbable expectation on the ability of team member account for unanticipatedissues in a project. Hence both technical and managerial skills are essential for smooth run of theproject and its timely delivery. Apart from technical knowledge of members involved in aproject, business should also know how to handle a project and its issues. Inadequate Resources (2009 – Robbie T, 2008 Guy Pare, 2002Tom Addison)In certain situations the members present in a project may have necessary skills / knowledge, butthe number of resources may not be sufficient to finish off that project. In other situations, due tothe lack of availability of resources with required experience, the project management has toassign a member to a project who doesn’t meet the requisites. Resources in project managementcontext do not imply people or project members alone but also the equipments which peoplemake use of to work in a project. Lack of top management commitment which is one another riskfactor can also indirectly contribute for inadequate resources issue in a project, this happenswhen top management do not show full dedication in hiring resources for a project. Thus lack ofadequate resources can cause a real hindrance for quality work of any project.Lack of top management commitment (2008 –Amin Qassim,2001 Delphi)In most of the studies done regarding Information systems top management commitment hadbeen identified as one of the prime factors for success or failure of any project due to the fact thatchances for a project to collapse are more when there is a lack of top management commitmentin that project. Support from top management is required from project’s starting phase till itsimplementation phase. For any project which starts in a bottom-up style will have difficultiesgoing forward as it normally lacks support from across the enterprise and in turn it occurs due tothe lack of top management commitment.Employees give importance to a project which topmanagement regard as important, hence lack of top management would definitely lead to failureof a project. ConclusionThe 39 risk factors discussed in this paper contribute to the performance of project and projectmanagers should take necessary measures to mitigate them. If project managers do not planeffectively the risk management strategy and methods to handle it, then it would adversely affectthe project development. All the above risk factors fall under the broad classification of technicaland non-technical but non-technical factors take over the technical risk factors. Proper riskmanagement approach should focus on various observations taken into account from people andtheir practice within an organisation and from outside the organisation as well. "