Agile Methodologies Require Adjustments to Risk Management

Agile risk management processes can play a leading role in meeting the growing need for organizational agility, as outlined in a new ISACA white paper.

Adopting Agile methodologies, though, may necessitate enterprises recalibrating their risk management methods to better support frequent release cycles and to expand real-time capabilities for supporting risk owners.

According to the ISACA white paper, Incorporating Risk Management in Agile Projects, “Agile can mitigate some risk that occurs during the sprint cycle, but this is not the only risk that may occur during a project’s life span. For example, in larger enterprises, there is more risk related to the external, organizational and project environments, including corporate reputation, project financing, user adoption of business changes and regulatory compliance. The risk potential influences the organizational context the Agile team operates in and requires project leadership’s involvement to address. Management of this type of risk is not addressed in most Agile literature, which focuses on risk that may occur at the sprint level.”

The effectiveness of the Agile risk management process is linked to project success. Unmanaged risk beyond the sprint cycle can spell doom for projects. Adopting Agile risk management processes that tailor Agile methodologies to include project and risk management can be effective, according to the white paper.

Download Incorporating Risk Management in Agile Projects. Find more risk resources from ISACA here.